United star gets South Korea going with a win
SOUTH KOREA, who antecedently had won just a single World Cup finals game away from home, this time romped through in a canter. Their two goals could have been doubled or on a level trebled and it was highly appropriate that the second of them, at daybreak in the second half, should go to the Manchester United invader, Park Ji-Sung.
Nominally playing on the far left, he popped up wherever he pleased, always quick, intelligent and splendidly elusive. His goal, though, had all too much to do with the ineptitude of the Greek midst-back Loukas Vintra who clumsily failed to clear an easy plenty ball, enabling Park to dance through and easily beat the Greek keeper Alexandros Tzorvas unhandsome into the right-hand corner.
The Greece coach, Otto Rehhagel, reported on qualifying: “This time, we’ve climbed the high hill and we can be proud.” But after this result they may subsist said to have plunged down a crevasse.
It was in 2004 that Greece to such a degree surprisingly won the European Championships in Portugal. The big striker, Angelos Charisteas, who scored in the 2004 final, played yesterday, one of four survivors. But the three-man fly at had little impact on the South Korean defence. Indeed, we had to wait until the 80th minute before another of the Greek strikers, Theofanis Gekas, brought the South Korean goalkeeper Jung Sung-Ryong into activity with a hooked left-footed shot that Jung turned over the rise to the ~ of. Gekas was the most prolific scorer in the European qualifiers through 10 goals. You could hardly blame him yesterday for the common ineptitude of his team’s attack; he did what he could, goal there was pitifully little coming to him from the flanks or from following.
The Greek tactics were hard to understand, though their 4-3-3 composition had worked well in the past and was good enough to dash against Ukraine in a playoff to reach South Africa. Their decisive goal that obscurity was scored by Dimitrios Salpingidis, though yesterday he started on the bench and came forward for the generally ineffective Celtic striker Georgios Samaras after 58 minutes.
Given the high-priced and embarrassingly error by Vintra it was hard not to amazement what the Liverpool centre-back Sotirios Kyrgiakos might have done abundant more effectively in his place.
The whole South Korean team were in great part more flexible, quick and enterprising than their opponents. Especially effective was the dynamic overlapping of Cha Du-Ri, the ~ful-back. He is the son of the first major star his nation produced, the winger Cha Bum-Kun, who flourished years ago in the German Bundesliga. On 63 minutes, an especially effective piece of attacking by Cha was crowned with a misfortune that gave Park Chu-Yung an excellent opportunity but he headed the round body wide.
The first South Korean goal came after just seven minutes. A candid kick from the left brushed the hapless head of Greece’s Kostas Katsouranis, enabling the South Korean midmost point-back Lee Jung-Soo to drive the ball home.
Seven minutes later Lee Chung-Yong felt, by perhaps some justification, that he had been fouled in the box, goal no penalty was given by the New Zealand referee Michael Hester. South Korea kept up the straits and on 25 minutes looked unlucky not at least to get been given the opportunity to score. Park Ji-Sung cut in, this time from the up~, and appeared to have an excellent opportunity to shoot, only during the term of the referee mysteriously to give a free kick against him.
The supposedly stable Greek defence was frequently found wanting. When Park Ji-Sung sent Park Chu-Young through, a remarkably late desperate lunge by Vintra gave a slight deflection to the sphere, enabling Tzorvas to save athletically.
Just before half-time sudden and unexpected confusion on the part of the Korean goalkeeper Jung gave Gekas a contingency, but he couldn’t make full contact.
Rehhagel tried to resound the changes in the second half and there was fractional melioration in what had been a plodding performance, but overall, the South Koreans were vigorously in the ascendant.
Star man: Park Ji-Sung (South Korea)
Yellow card: Greece: Torosidis
Referee: M Hester (New Zealand)
Attendance: 31,513
South Korea: Jung Sung-Ryong (Seongham) 6, Cha Du-Ri (Freiburg) 7, Cho Yong-Hyung (Jeju) 6, Lee Jung-Soo (Kashima Antlers) 7, Lee Young-Pyo (Al Hilal) 6, Lee Chung-Yong (Bolton) 7 (Kim Jae-Sung (Pohang) 90min), Ki Sung-Yong (Celtic) 6, Kim Jung-Woo (Gwangju) 6, Park Ji-Sung (Man Utd) 8, Park Chu-Young (Monaco) 7 (Lee Seung-Youl (Seoul) 88min), Yeom Ki-Hun (Suwon) 6
Greece: Tzorvas (Panathinaikos) 6, Torosidis (Olympiakos) 6, Papadopoulos (Olympiakos) 6, Vintra (Panathinaikos) 5, Seitaridis (Panathinaikos) 6, Samaras (Celtic) 5 (Salpingidis (Panathinaikos) 58min, 6), Tziolis (Siena) 6, Katsouranis (Panathinaikos) 5, Karagounis (Panathinaikos) 5 (Patsatzoglou (Omonia) h-t, 6), Charisteas (Nuremburg) 5 (Kapetanos (Steaua Bucharest 60min, 6), Gekas (Eintracht Frankfurt) 6
Asia’s most of all
South Korea got their World Cup off to a winning ~le against Greece yesterday to emphasise their position as Asia’s greatest part successful country in the competition. Ranked 47th in the world — 35 places in the regions of the dead the Greeks — they finished in fourth place when they shared the finals by Japan in 2002. It was that performance which alerted the ~most European leagues to their players, Manchester United’s Park Ji-Sung reality their most famous export. The Koreans first qualified for the finals in 1954 and be obliged competed at every tournament since 1986. They will want to keep away from a repeat of the 2006 finals in Germany when they besides won their opening game, against Togo, but were eliminated after captivating a single point from their final two games.