a defender Hong Myung-bo was suspected of slowdown. 2000 (Lebanon) 2004 (China) South Korea reached the semi-finals in the 2002 FIFA World Cup, but their performance wasn't continued after Guus Hiddink left them. They suffered shock defeats to Oman and Vietnam in the qualification. They were eliminated by the quarter-final defeat to Iran after conceding Ali Karimi's hat-trick and an own goal. 2007 (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam) After excluding three Premier League players (Park Ji-sung, Lee Young-pyo and Seol Ki-hyeon) due to their injuries, South Korea had difficulty again in the Asian Cup. Furthermore, some players including the captain Lee Woon-jae were criticised by fans for visiting a hostess bar in the middle of the group stage. South Korea's outfield players made only three goals during the competition. However, Lee led his team to third place by keeping four clean sheets and winning two penalty shoot-outs. 2011 (Qatar) After beating Iran in extra time of the quarter-final match, South Korea once again played extra time in the semi-finals against Japan. In this extra time, Hajime Hosogai who moved into the penalty area before Keisuke Honda kicked a penalty scored a controversial goal from the rebound. South Korea scored the equaliser after the misfortune, but lost on penalties. 2015 (Australia) Under the leadership of manager Uli Stielike, the South Korean players underperformed in the first two matches against Oman and Kuwait. They won both matches, but expressed dissatisfaction with Stielike, who then handed over command to assistant manager Shin Tae-yong for the rest of the tournament. Goalkeeper Kim Jin-hyeon then kept a clean sheet in every match until the final, as the team eliminated Uzbekistan and Iraq in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, respectively. Their opponent in the final was Australia, which they had already beaten 1–0 in the group stage. However, South Korea lost the final 2–1 after extra time, evoking the 1980 final between them and Kuwait. 2019 (United Arab Emirates) See also South Korea at the FIFA World Cup South Korea at the CONCACAF Gold Cup External links Korea Football Association official website Korea Rep.