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Hankooki - Pim Verbeek, South Korean national
football coach, urged his players to thoroughly review Saturday’s 1-1 draw
against Iran, to prevent them from repeating the same mistakes in the Taiwan
match to be held next Wednesday.
``As long as you don't score a second goal, something like this can always
happen,’’ said Verbeek in a press conference after Korea allowed a
last-minute equalizer to Iran in its third preliminary match of Asian Cup in
Seoul.
Seol Ki-hyeon of Reading FC opened the scoring in the 45th minute with a
header and South Korea was close to victory before Iran’s forward Vahid
Hashemian of Hanover silenced the 63,113 crowd at the World Cup Stadium with
a 90th-minute equalizer.
``They should have stayed alert to the end and added goals in the second
half. I told the players they have to study today's match just for one day
and we'll focus on the match against Taiwan from Monday,’’ the 50-year-old
Dutch coach said.
Seol echoed the same regret for the equalizer.
``It’s good to have done something for the team with the goal,’’ the
27-year-old Premier Leaguer said. ``But, we lacked a bit of concentration at
the final moments and lost the opportunity to win the game.’’
Verbeek and the players went back to the National Football Center, Paju
north of Seoul, Sunday, to prepare for the match against Taiwan.
Allowing the draw, Korea failed in a bid to put an early end to its
qualification campaign for the quadrennial competition, and is just two
points ahead of Iran with three more games to play.
In the Asian Cup, to be held next July, the top two teams from each of the
six groups will enter the final 16 along with the four host countries _
Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
Korea garnered seven points from three preliminary matches and currently is
on top of Group B, with Iran and Syria following on five and four points,
respectively. Taiwan has lost all three matches including a 3-0 loss at home
to Korea on Aug. 16.
Korea was also unsuccessful to strengthen its razor-thin dominance over
Iran, recording eight victories, seven losses and four draws in their 19
meetings.
Iran’s coach Amir Ghalenoei said he was very satisfied with the result after
a 2-0 loss in their previous match in the same stadium last October.
``I am satisfied with a draw,’’ he said.
``My first goal (in the Korea game) was to draw and the next was to win.
Fortunately, we managed to reach the first goal.’’
After a sluggish 15 minutes, Seol boosted the mood for Korea, floating
several crosses from the right wing, which just missed a final touch by
striker Cho Jae-jin.
Kim Do-heon set up the chance when he sent a free-kick into middle of the
Iranian penalty area. Seol surged over a couple of defenders to send a
powerful header into the net.
Iran was impressive only once in the first half, when Ali Karimi drove past
two defenders in the 25th minute in front of goalkeeper Kim Young-kwang. He
squandered the chance shooting well wide.
In the second half, Korea found more goal chances, one of which came from
Lee Ho of Russia’s Zenit St. Petersburg. After juggling the ball inside the
penalty area, the 21-year-old midfielder sent an overhead kick just inches
over the crossbar.
Park Ji-sung of Manchester United sent the crowd into a roar a couple of
times, dribbling deep into the goal area, one of which earned him a free
kick.
Cho of J-League side Shimizu Spulse also threat Iranian side, but was denied
by goalkeeper Ebrahim Mirzapour.
Iran found little chance until Hashemian intercepted the ball from Kim
Sang-sik on the half-line. Watching goalkeeper Kim Young-kwang standing far
forward in front of the net, he sent a looping shot over him for the goal.
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