NATIONAL SOCCER TEAM ENTERS WORLD CUP

[Anchor Lead]

The Korean national soccer team has defeated Turkmenistan and is now poised to advance to the World Cup group stages, for the tenth consecutive time. Despite the victory achieved by scoring two goals, the team has yet to figure out how to break the opponent's defense. Here's more

[Pkg]

​​​Team Korea's utilized a four-back defense and an offense that centers around three forwards: Hwang Ui-jo, Son Heung-min and Na Sang-ho. As soon as the game began, Hwang Ui-jo missed two chances to scorch the net. The long-awaited goal was finally scored at the 13th minute. When Lee Yong's cross was blocked, Na Sang-ho rushed in with a right-foot volley for his A match debut goal. While the Taeguk Warriors secured the lead, Turkmenistan played suffocating defense, and came close to scoring an equalizer. At the 37th minute of the second half, Jeong Woo-young scored another for team Korea with a free kick and sealed the deal. Kim Shin-wook, who belatedly joined the game, pushed himself to try and guarantee the team's victory, but couldn't find the net. With the 2-0 win, South Korea is poised to advance to the World Cup group stages for the tenth consecutive time.

[Soundbite] NA SANG-HO(S. KOREAN NATIONAL SOCCER TEAM) : "I am glad I scored the first goal of the Asian qualifiers, but I'm disappointed we failed to score more goals."

Despite what the final score shows, the game left much to be desired. Team Korea will take on two more challenging teams next month -- two away games in Sri Lanka and Pyongyang.