South Korea beat Uzbekistan in play-off
Reuters - Friday 28 January 2011, 18:46
DOHA - South Korea survived a fightback
from Uzbekistan to win the Asian Cup third-place play-off 3-2 on
Friday and book a place at the next tournament in four years
time.
Korea led 3-0 after 40 minutes at the Al Sadd Stadium before
Uzbek striker Alexander Geynrikh scored twice to set up a nervy
finale to an entertaining match.
"We showed excellent fighting spirit through the Asian
Cup... this gave us the possibility to show the world that we
can play good football and I want to continue working on this,"
Korean coach Cho Kwang-rae told reporters.
"We played three matches in a week and two of those were 120
minutes. (The) players have not lost a game, I lost the penalty
shootout," Cho added, referring to the 3-0 shootout loss to
Japan in their semi-final and the extra time win over Iran in
the last eight.
The Koreans, playing without captain Park Ji-sung, who along
with Lee Young-pyo retired from internationals after the game,
took the lead after a swift counter attack in the 17th minute
and some poor defending by the Uzbeks.
Lee Yong-rae was allowed space to break through the heart of
the Uzbek midfield and his pass put Koo Ja-cheol clear for the
forward to score his fifth goal of the tournament.
The Koreans were 2-0 up 11 minutes later when some neat
passing on the edge of the Uzbek penalty area to avoid some
lunging challenges found Ji Dong-won in space and he lashed
home.
Uzbekistan, thrashed 6-0 by Australia in their semi-final on
Tuesday, looked ragged and their attack-minded central defender
Odil Akhmedov struggled to contain Korea's creative front three.
More lethargic defending resulted in a third Korean goal
when Ji leaped over Viktor Karpenko to plant a brilliant header
in to the corner of Ignatiy Nesterov's goal in the 39th minute.
The Uzbeks pulled a goal back on the stroke of half-time when
they were awarded a soft penalty following a challenge between
Hwang Jae-won and Olim Novkarov just inside the penalty area.
Striker Geynrikh leathered the spot-kick in after his
initial cheeky, dinked effort was ruled out following some
encroachment.
Geynrikh reduced the deficit further eight minutes after
half-time when he expertly pulled down a cross from the left,
turned inside Lee Jung-soo and fired a left foot shot past
keeper Jung Sung-ryong.
Australia meet Japan in the final at the Khalifa Stadium on
Saturday.