Wed, August 13, 2008
SHANGHAI, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Two desperate teams saw the end of their Beijing Olympic trip after a men's soccer group match here on Wednesday, in which South Korea defeated Honduras 1-0.
While Honduras was already out of the tournament when they finished their first two group matches without a single point, South Korea could have qualified if they beat Honduras with a lead of more than three goals and Italy offered them a favour by defeating Cameroon.
Going on at the same in China's north city of Tianjin,the game between the two group leaders concluded with a 0-0 tie of tacit agreement. South Korea thus lost their last chances.
In a match with both sides aiming for nothing but dignity, South Korea tried hard to play an offensive game, as their coach Park Sung-Wha had promised before the competition.
"We did our best to attack, but still made some mistakes. Partly due to the weather in Qinhuangdao, our players were fatigue, resulting a draw with Cameroon which we had been confident to win. The match against Italy also revealed our physical and technical disadvantages," said South Korea coach.
His team dominated their third group match, except for the first quarter in which the Catrachos sliced into the Korean defence with skillful short passes. However, the situation quickly changed in the 23th minute when Kim Dong Jin scored at a backheeled two-one cross from Lee Keun Ho. South Korea since then mounted fierce attacks against Honduras,creating a series of chances among which at least four perfect ones were unfortunately offside.
Honduras adopted a 3-5-2 formation, and South Korea turned to a flat 4-4-2.
"It was an open game. We had chances but we did not score. But the mean result does not write off the efforts of both our two teams." Honduras coach Gilberto Yearwood said. "My team was called up just 40 days ago, and four members even didn't joined us until recently, including Emil Martinez."
While South Korea found their rhythm, the Catrachos lost theirs, with modest good moments when Martinez contributed several wide shots. Honduras intensified their offensives in the second half, but the lack of organization and discipline made their individual skills helpless except for some inefficient long shots.
South Korea had 14 shots with 11 on goal. Honduras had 13 shots with only 4 on goal.
South Korea were given two clear chances within one minute after the restart, but they missed them. During the rest of the match, neither Park Chu-Young's free kicks nor backup Baek Ji Hoom's sent-in didn't help to suspend the stalemate.
"Italy and Cameroon are world powers, and South Korea also play well. We lost, but we lost with dignity," said Yearwood.
