The Hindu : Sport : Korea Republic posts facile victory

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 26, 2007
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Korea Republic posts facile victory

S.R. Suryanarayan

— Photo: K.V. Srinivasan

CHARGING PAST: Korea Republic's Moon Seul (right) scored the final goal in her team's 3-0 win over India.

CHENNAI: An over-defensive India proved no stumbling block for the charging Koreans and the outcome went on familiar lines, Korea Republic recording a 3-0 win in the second leg of the Group `A' women's pre-Olympic football tie at the Nehru Stadium on Sunday.

Korea had won 5-0 in the first leg held at Masan on February 17 and with this result, the team confidently marches into the final round, even though prior to that it has to play Hong Kong next. Interestingly if it topped Group `A' then Korea Republic will find itself placed alongside DPR Korea in the final round. "We will have to see how we can avoid that," said the coach Kim Sang Jin tongue-in-cheek.

Few positives

Be that as it may, it was a match, which had little bright points for India, even though the team did well to restrict Korea. Still mention has to be made of goalkeeper L.R. Chanu, who came good late and provided some refreshing moments. That no goal came in the second session is in itself a compliment this gritty girl will long cherish. Else barring two or three occasions there was hardly an Indian initiative to speak of. This was in contrast to what Korea exhibited, attacking with vigour and purpose to keep the contest centred in the Indian half right through.

Perhaps the Korean coach Jin summed up the Indian display best: "You are ten years behind us. A decade ago we too kept losing to all." Such was his confidence and so sure was his judgement about India that he said, "we used younger players today so that they could get experience of playing in international matches. We were confident of winning anyway."

Painting a gloomy picture was Indian chief coach, Harjinder Singh. "We decided on defensive play because our counter-attacking is bad. Had we attempted that, there would have been more goals against us," he said.

High expectations

However, the expectations were high among the fans as reflected in the encouraging numbers in the galleries on the Eastern side including a sizeable number of Koreans. There were cheers but mostly for the Koreans, who though had to wait till the 29th minute to get the breakthrough, defender Lee Kye Lim, sneaking into the Indian end to tap in the ball following a flag-kick.

Nine minutes later, Kwon Hah Nul placed the ball in the way of Park Hee Young and the scorer of two goals in the earlier leg, added one more to her name. The very next minute the goal-scoring sequence ended with Moon Seul A, capping all her hard work in the midfield.

The second session brought to the fore the free-kick skills of Lim as also Indian goalkeeper Chanu's best phase. More importantly a determined bunch of Indians, all of them virtually tented in their own half, ensured the Koreans went no further. The only serious call for the special Apollo Hospital medical team came from India's Chanu Rani, who suffered a knee injury and had to be taken out for an X-ray.

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