South Korea Coach Swapped Players' Jersey Numbers So The Swedes Can't Tell Them Apart

Sweden will be going against South Korea in their first group match later this evening and both countries already have some tricks up their sleeves.

Apparently, Sweden sent a someone to spy on South Korea's football team during their training sessions and some people are not happy.

According to the Straits Times, a Swedish scout used a house located near South Korea's training base in Austria to observe their World Cup routines with a telescope and a video camera.

He had initially attempted to enter the closed training session posing as a tourist but his disguise didn't work.

So he managed to persuade a local couple to let him use their house instead to watch the Koreans.

Sweden's head coach Janne Andersson has since issued an apology on Sunday and explained that they were misunderstood.

"This is something small that has been turned into something much bigger because usually our information about our opponents comes from us watching them play matches," he said.

However, South Korea's coach Shin Tae Yong doesn't seem to concern about this because such analysis (read: spying) has apparently become an international norm.

But in actual fact, he had come up with his own strategy to outsmart the Swedes -- by swapping the jersey numbers of the players to confuse their opponents.

"They might know a few of our players, but it is very difficult for Westerners to distinguish between Asians and that's why we did that," Shin said.

In other words, he knew that everyone thinks that all Koreans look similar, so he decided to put this stereotype to good use.