The Marmot’s Hole

Okay, so it was against a national team ranked 80+ places below them, but Korea put on a good show last night, especially in the second half, to get their 2010 South Africa World Cup qualifying campaign off to a good start.

Turkmenistan were never going to trouble Korea and it showed from the start as the Koreans applied constant pressure on the Turkmeni defence. But for some poor finishing, Korea would have been in front at the break more than their 1-0 lead, which came courtesy of defender Kwak Tae-hwi’s header a minute before the break.

The second-half finishing was much better, though, as two of their English Premier League “big three” combined to score all three second-half goals. Twelve minutes after the restart, Seol Ki-hyun, from just inside the box directly in front of the goal, gently lofted a ball past the Turkmeni goalkeeper after a nifty back pass from Park Ji-sung. Thirteen minutes later, goal number three was Park Ji-sung’s excellently-curled shot from the left corner of the box that rooted the keeper helpless and frozen. And the final goal, Seol’s second and about seven minutes from time, was again the result of a nice pass, this time, one sent long by Lee Kwan-woo to free Seol for the easiest of scores.

Lee Young-pyo, the final member of the EPL big three playing last night, helped veteran central defender Kim Nam-il keep steady a mostly inexperienced defence and goalkeeper against a squad that, to be fair, didn’t really trouble them. There were no more than a small handful of chances by the Turkmenistan team and they were all handled without too much nervousness.

All in all, it was a good start to the campaign for Korea. The first goal by Seol and the goal by Park were both examples of the continuing improvement by Korean footballers that the notion of blasting the ball at the goal is less important than an expertly-placed shot. True, there were more than a few instances last night where Korean shooters tried to bore a hole in the net with a powerful shot, but those usually ended up in the nearby Han River and they looked to be less frequent than normal. The influence of Koreans playing overseas and gaining more footballing experience against the best players in the world is perhaps beginning to bear fruit.

Continuing to disappoint, however, is Park Ju-young. When he burst onto Korea’s footballing scene several years ago, there were high hopes for him. Whereas he used to have a deft touch in front of the goal, he seems to be in constant regression now. Last night, he displayed none of the touch that seemed to signal his ascent into the pantheon of Korean sports fame. He’s still young, so there’s still hope, but he needs to take heed from those playing in the EPL (and, dear Shiva, let’s hope he doesn’t take ANY cues from that prima donna moron playing in the Dutch league, Lee Chun-soo, either on how to play the game, shoot the ball, or be a responsible, dependable teammate) on how to play consistently well.

Kudos to the Koreans for the easy win. Next up in their qualifying march is North Korea (who beat Jordan away last night, 0-1) the 26th of next month in  Pyoungyang. That should be fun.