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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;SEOUL (Reuters) -- South Korea have charged Choi Kang-hee with the task of guiding the country to an eighth successive World Cup finals after naming him as national team coach on Wednesday, Yonhap news agency reported.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The 52-year-old former international replaces Cho Kwang-rae, who was sacked two weeks ago following South Korea's shock 2-1 defeat to Lebanon in Asia's 2014 World Cup qualifiers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Korean Football Association had been expected to name a foreign coach and were linked with Sven-Goran Eriksson, Senol Gunes and Guus Hiddink, who led the side to the semi-finals of the 2002 World Cup on home soil.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Choi guided Jeonbuk to the K-League title in two of the last three seasons and his side lifted the Asian Football Confederation's Champions League trophy in 2006. Jeonbuk were also runners-up in the 2011 competition.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The KFA asked former national team coach Cho to resign after the stunning loss to Lebanon provoked a storm of criticism at home and stalled the Koreans' progress to the fourth round of 2014 World Cup qualifying.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The east Asian side remain top of Group B on goal difference with three wins, one loss and a draw, and need only a point at home to 100th-ranked Kuwait in their final match in February to progress.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lebanon were ranked 146th in the world when they defeated the Koreans in November.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hwangbo Kwan of the KFA's technical committee said Choi's name had been at the top of the list.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\"He was always the first option for our technical committee,\" said Hwangbo, adding that the lack of time to integrate a new coach into the set-up before the Kuwait game was a key factor.&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/soccer/2011/12/21/southkorea-choi>