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Hankooki - The South Korean Olympic
football team capped off their perfect qualifying campaign with a 1-0 win
over Iran Wednesday night at Seoul's World Cup Stadium.
With South Korea looking like it wouldn't keep its winning run going in the
final qualifying round for the Athens Olympics, Kim Du-hyun found himself
alone in front of the Iranian net and headed Choi Won-kwon's cross home just
seconds before full-time.
Kim, one of South Korea's top performers through the six games in Asia's
Group A, added to the luster of a campaign that saw the team beat out rivals
Iran, China and Malaysia, scoring nine times while not allowing a single
goal in return.
South Korea went into the game comfortable in the knowledge that they had
locked up the country's fifth straight qualification for the Olympic
tournament but there was plenty of pride at stake for the Asian rivals.
The Iranians came out determined to avenge a 1-0 loss on Teheran and striker
Arash Borhani threatened the goal several times early only to be ruled
offside on both occasions.
Kim Jung-woo had the hosts first chance with a long-range attempt that
sailed over the bar of Sayed Mahdi Rahmati's goal.
With the teams playing fairly even, Choi Sung-kuk would get a chance five
minutes before the break, running under a long ball but tried a centering
pass when he should have taken a shot. Cho Jae-jin was also at fault just
before the whistle, taking to long and allowing an Iranian defender to get
back and block his attempt at goal.
Both teams stepped up the pace after the interval and Satar Zare could only
watch as his blast deflected off South Korea's Kim Chi-woo and over the net
four minutes in. South Korean goalkeeper Kim Young-kwang had hardly been
tested over the past few months, but showed his quality with a pair of
stunning saves in the 58th minute as Iran's Borhani and Moharram Navidkia
threatened from in close.
Second-half sub Chun Jae-woon had the ball in the net for South Korea four
minutes later but it was disallowed as he hadn't waited for the referee to
set up the play.
As the hosts pressed for the winner, Choi Sung-kuk was put in the clear by a
crafty pass from Kim Du-hyun in the 80th minute, but the speedy winger ran
out of space as Rahmati charged out.
However, Kim would make no mistake when his chance arrived, as the
diminutive playmaker got his head to Choi's Won-kwon's cross from the right
and provide the perfect ending to a perfect run. |
