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<a href="/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/park-ji-sung.jpg"></a>You’d be hard pressed to find a single person who had anything negative to say about Park Ji-Sung, the Manchester United midfielder who netted the winning goal Sunday against Liverpool at Old Trafford.
In many ways, Ji-Sung is the model professional. You never see him complaining. He always gives 100%. He rarely has a poor game. He loves the club he plays for. And, best of all, he’s got an incredible work rate which, when you add all of his attributes together, he’s the type of player you always want on your team.
Except Sir Alex Ferguson doesn’t play him all the time. It seems that Fergie only picks Ji-Sung for those big matches when he needs Ji-Sung to pull something special out of his bag of tricks either by scoring a goal or being a chief contributor by creating decisive assists for his fellow teammates.
Ji-Sung is such a valuable asset to Manchester United that I’m sure some managers would love to have eleven players just like him. You can’t fault the bloke. He’s improved by leaps and bounds from the time when he first joined United in 2005. And you get the sense that he’s always learning and fine-tuning his game much to the benefit of himself and the team around him.
He seems like a humble, hard working man. Quiet, observant and respectful. He is, without a doubt, the model professional. Someone who is impossible to hate and easy to admire.
But yet, at the same time, he’s probably the player that soccer fans know the least about in terms of his personal life. And that’s a good thing. Park Ji-Sung does his talking on the football pitch. It’s now time for this unsung hero to receive the praise he deserves and to let us do the talking for him.

Park Ji-Sung: Manchester United&#039;s Unsung Hero - World Soccer Talk

Park Ji-Sung: Manchester United's Unsung Hero

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Australia’s remarkable run of results has come crashing to a halt at the Seoul World Cup Stadium as&nbsp;Korea downed the Socceroos 3-1 &nbsp;tonight in an International Friendly. With both teams safely through to the World Cup Finals as top of their Asian qualifying groups, this was a chance for both managers to test some new players, and Aussie coach Pim Verbeek rang in the changes in what was a homecoming for him, as he coached South Korea before taking the Australian job.
Australia’s new look back four were rattled by two early goals, both defensive mistakes, as first a stray Jason Culina pass was intercepted on the half way line, followed by a quick Korean breakaway as Park Chu Young&nbsp;put the first past Mark Schwarzer, and shortly afterwards, a free kick to the back post saw a goalmouth scramble and an uncontested backheel &nbsp;flick by Lee Jung Soo give Korea a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes.
At this stage Australia were under all sorts of pressure and could have conceded several more goals before pulling one back off a set piece, as a Bresciano free kick was headed home by Leeds United defender Pat Kisnorbo to bring the Socceroos back into the game. From that moment forth, Australia regained their composure and were able to eventually enjoy periods of dominance over Korea, with Josh Kennedy coming close with a number of headers, using his height to first narrowly miss, and eventually hitting the post.
It was the Manchester United midfielder Ji-sung Park however who was at the centre of everything good Korea was doing, and ultimately it was he that killed the game off towards the end of the second half, as he picked up the ball near the half way line, and dribbled around Australia’s midfield enforcer Vince Grella, down the touchline beating two more players with an explosion of speed, finally able to produce a pinpoint cross for Ki Sung Yueng to nod home. Park’s inclusion by Sir Alex Ferguson in big matches has often been a talking point amongst pundits and fans, but Australians will not be amongst those that question the great manager after this display, culminating in a demonstration of power and skill that has rarely &nbsp;been inflicted on a side that has risen to an all time high of 14 in the world this week.
Korea’s unbeaten run now stretches to 25 games, and they will be heading to the World Cup full of confidence. For Australia, there were positives after the slow start, and the introduction of Nicky Carle on the hour mark made a difference to the creativity levels and energy in the side, but they will be a different team when the absent Kewell, Cahill, Lucas Neill and Brett Emerton return. Their next match is a friendly with the Netherlands on October 11 at the Sydney Football Stadium.

Ji-Sung Park Tames Socceroos  - World Soccer Talk

Ji-Sung Park Tames Socceroos

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Gentleman, let us put away childish things.
Yes, international breaks can provide some godawful football.&nbsp; Yes, it doesn’t seem fair for a player to risk injury for a team he plays with only five times a year and miss games for the club that employs him on a weekly basis.&nbsp; Yes, nations like Lichtenstein don’t give much bang for your underdog dollar when facing Germany.
But to call international football boring, to curse the name of the foreign sounding manager who would dare call up your club star to represent the nation that raised him, to rant on whatever message board or blog that will let you about the inanity of Wales versus Finland, France versus Lithuania, is arrogant in the extreme.
Hatred for the international break comes from the same school of thought that calls for the abolishment of the Carling Cup, the FA Cup, and the speedy introduction of the European Super League.&nbsp; If the same nations always seem to advance in international tournaments, the absurd logic goes, why not give them an automatic berth and have everyone else duke it out over the summer?
Well, for one, things change in international football, if maybe not fast enough for the club supporter who mentally erases the club season just as soon as it’s over.&nbsp; Hungary were considered a global footballing power in the 1950s, along with Austria in the 1920s.&nbsp; Yugoslavia, Denmark and Greece have more European Championships than England.&nbsp; Hell, Uruguay twice as many World Cups as England.&nbsp; Brazil was once considered small potatoes in South America, and Argentina didn’t participate in international tournaments for two decades out of fear of embarrassment.&nbsp; Who’s to say Ivory Coast, South Korea, or even the United States won’t one day win a World Cup?
Sure, these are established footballing countries with ambitious national programs, but what about San Marino and the Faroe Islands?&nbsp; These tiny nations are unlikely to take a national tournament by storm, but is it fair to take away the right of nations to compete in the most popular game on the planet just because you get a bit bored one Saturday or Wednesday out the season?&nbsp; If you ask any professional footballer, they will often point to international caps as the highlight of their career.&nbsp; It could be something curmudgeonly club-shirted punters, Best-Of DVDs in hand, might never understand.

It's Arrogant to Call Internationals Boring - World Soccer Talk

It's Arrogant to Call Internationals Boring

<div><figure class="image"></figure></div>Fulham announced this morning that it’ll be playing two <a href="http:\/\/epltalk.com/preseason-friendlies/">preseason friendlies</a> in South Korea this July. The club will play against FC Seoul on July 23 and against Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i FC on July 26.
Fulham’s decision to travel to South Korea this summer dashes any hopes of the club visiting the United States, where it has built a solid fanbase due to the number of Americans that play at Fulham as well as the way that Fulham miraclously avoided relegation this summer.
In addition to its preseason friendlies against Korean opposition, Fulham has also announced a preseason match against Reading as well as a match against Celtic.

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It's Arrogant to Call Internationals Boring

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