South Korea has talent. They have the right roster in place to compete with the best teams in tournament. They could easily compete with Brazil or Germany if they play to their abilities. The issue is that sometimes they do not which has come back to haunt them in the past. In Group H, they can easily make it out of the knockout stages with ease, but qualifying was not kind to South Korea and Russia hopes to take full advantage of that in their World Cup debut.
South Korea looked very poor in qualifying. They actually lost to Russia during a March friendly as they struggled with roster chemistry. Head coach Hong Myung-Bo has a history of success with the Under-2- and Under-23 teams in World Cup and Olympic action and he hopes to carry that over to the real World Cup where the stage is much bigger.
South Korea enters the tournament without any major injuries to report. The issue for them is their lacking defense. The team can be a goal-scoring power house with their front six, but everywhere else leaves a lot to be desired. The roster could experience a bit of a shakeup as a result. Another issue could be pressure. According to Park Ji-sung, the roster was having a hard time handling the pressure of playing in the World Cup and the heavy expectations placed upon them.
Russia comes into the tournament looking like an efficient machine thanks to coach Fabio Capello. They could easily challenge a team like Beglium for the top seeding after group play as they are the resounding favorites to get out of Group H on top. Russia took a big hit losing Roman Shirokov at the start of things, but players like Alan Dzagoez and Denis Glushakov should make up for the situation. Russia has failed to advance out of the knockout stages of the World Cup since they started playing in it. However, they looked impressive during qualifying which could help.
Russia has won three of their last four games each by two goals. That type of production could easily carry over into the World Cup where they are making their first appearance since 2002. Group H is considered to be a pretty even playing field, so getting three points in this first game is crucial. Both South Korea and Russia need to put their best soccer forward if they intend on getting to the next stage where games will be a bit tougher.