The South Korean national squad fell 1-0 this morning to Spain, the overall tournament favorite heading into the World Cup, in a fiercely-contested International Friendly at the Sportanlage Reichenau in Innsbruck, Austria. Its narrow win gave Spain—led by Korean-Spanish striker, David Silva–a small measure of revenge for its memorably bitter defeat against Korea in the 2002 World Cup quarterfinals.
Still, Korean coach Huh Jung-moo has to be encouraged by his side’s gutsy showing against the overwhelmingly favored Spanish squad, which many expected would coast to an easy victory in its penultimate tune-up before this month’s World Cup.
But while the European champions outshot Korea 16-9, the match was knotted until the 86th minute when midfielder Jesus Navas found the top right corner from about 20 meters for the decisive goal. The first half featured scoring chances for both sides, with Korea’s best opportunity coming in the 45th minute on sniper Park Chu-Young’s right-footed canon from the center of the box. Spain, meanwhile, missed several close-calls, including Francesc Fabregas’s shot off the goalpost in the 35th minute.
For South Korea, today’s friendly was its final exhibition before traveling to South Africa ahead of its first Group match in the 2010 FIFA World Cup against Greece on June 12 (7:30AM EST). Huh viewed the match as a valuable opportunity for his squad to practice its defensive game plan against a side that plays a similar attacking style to fellow World Cup Group member, Argentina.
Even with Thursday’s setback, Korea did win 7 of its 11 international ties this year, including key wins over fellow World Cup hopefuls, Cote d’Ivoire, Australia, and archrival Japan. And as they head to South Africa with its most talented 23-man squad ever, the Koreans are understandably bullish about their chances to advance to the Round of 16, something they’ve never done outside their home soil. Only one thing is certain: the eyes of an entire nation will be watching.
So getcha’ popcorn ready.
– TBY
Photo Credit: www.Osen.co.kr
