World Football News: South Korea 1-0 vs. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Syria-c3017 Analysis
The match held in Abu Dhabi, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/United-Arab-Emirates-c3033 was much awaited especially by the neighbouring Arab states. However, the scheduled International friendly match between South Korea and Syria, two notorious nations when it comes
to politics, was being eyed by many others as well.
In the match, South Korea easily showed who had the upper hand in the game as they threatened the opposition during most of the match. Eventually, that resulted in South Korea winning by a goal to nil.
This was also a practice run for the upcoming Asian Cup, which will start on the 7th of January. Many pundits and experts have already predicted that the tournament will be a heated contest; therefore, there are no clear
favourites among the major footballing nations.
South Koreans are already trying to adjust to the climate as they have setup a camp for training in Abu Dhabi. Hence, it was also easier for them to compete against Syria. Currently, South Koreans are rated 39th in FIFA’s
world rankings.
The few pundits who are claiming favourites have announced either the Australian team, which is all set to go, or the South Korean team, to proceed as victors. The first reason, of course, would be that both teams have prior World
Cup experience.
However, South Koreans have the edge as they have won the Asian Cup twice before. South Korea will be lead by the talismanic Manchester United forward http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Park-Ji-Sung-c29147 and their manager Cho Kwang-Rae is hopeful that his team will return
as victors from the Asian Cup.
Syria, on the other hand, are ranked 109 by FIFA and their Romanian coach Valeriu http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Tita-c35160 does realize there is much space for improvement. Nonetheless, he believes the team is on the right track.
The first half of the match was hapless for both teams. Uneventful as it was, it did have its moments as both teams lost an easy chance to score. In the 2nd half it seemed like coach Kwang-Rae had re-entered the field
with a fine briefing with his men.
Soon after the game resumed, Koreans started to dominate and brought wave after wave of attacks. Their midfield showed better chemistry and the ball travelled much more evenly.
This led the Syrians to think and they came up with a strategy of their own in which they utilized their flanks, but with not much to avail, as their final product was far too coarse.
South Korea dominated overall and kept possession of the ball. It was clearly being pictured that Kwang-Rae had his men running and training all along. He also had a couple of youngsters running about who were showing promising
talent.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ji-Dong-Won-c18522 was one of them and the debutant also happened to score the lone winning goal. First blood was drawn late in the 82nd minute, as Ji rocketed the ball into the top left corner with his left leg.
In the process, he also outsmarted two Syrian defenders and left the goalkeeper http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Mosab-Balhous-c26844 for dead. The rest of the Korean team also had a good day out gained an important morale boost, as they head into the Asian Cup.
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