Soccer-Halilhodzic element adds spice to Korea-Japan rivalry

SEOUL, July 20 (Reuters) - South Korea's national football team require little motivation to raise their game against Japan but Vahid Halilhodzic's appointment as coach of their fierce rivals will add some spice to their East Asian Cup clash next month. Halilhodzic, who replaced Javier Aguirre as Japan coach in March, was in charge of Algeria at the 2014 World Cup finals where his side delivered a 4-2 thrashing that virtually sealed the Koreans' first-round exit. The Franco-Bosnian has enjoyed a mixed start to his tenure with the Japanese, enjoying three friendly wins but seeing his side held to a shock 0-0 draw at home to Singapore in their opening 2018 World Cup qualifier last month. South Korea coach Uli Stielike said it was important his team forgot about old wounds. "There's some talk about Halilhodzic and revenge," Yonhap news quoted Stielike as saying on Monday. "But whenever you go into football games with thoughts of revenge you lose your own identity. You have to be careful about that. What happened in the past is in the past, we have to concentrate on the present." The East Asian Cup finals, which also include China and North Korea, are being held in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Since the tournament is not on FIFA's official calendar, clubs are under no obligation to release players and both the Koreans and Japanese are fielding sub-strength teams. The majority of Stielike's side is drawn from the domestic K League, supplemented by six playing club football in Japan and three from China. "China and North Korea will field their strongest squads, but Japan face the same situation as us," he added. "We'll do our best with the players we have." The German has called up Ulsan's towering striker Kim Shin-wook for the first time while Kim Seung-gyu and Kim Jin-hyeon will continue to push their claims as first choice goalkeeper. South Korea open their campaign at the round robin tournament against hosts China on Aug. 2, before facing Japan three days later and North Korea on Aug. 9. (Writing by Peter Rutherford; Additional reporting by Oh Seung-yun; Editing by John O'Brien)