|
South Korea 2-1 Italy.
As I type this, I am munching on leftover Korean
junk food brought
back by my triumphant colleagues.
4': South Korea corner kick, Italy is called for
about three fouls
in the box. Ahn Jung-Hwan
(who scored the header past Agoos)
kicks moderately to the left
post, Buffon guesses correctly and
tips it out with both hands. 0-0 Excellent work by
Buffon.
18': Italy corner kick. Vieri, lurking at the
top of the box at the far
post, bulls his way diagonally
through the box, plants himself
firmly at the 2m line, fends off
his man with some emphatic
armwork, goes up like a rock,
and heads strongly just inside the
near post. 0-1
Credit his upper-body strength, and all the wily
experience he has fighting through Serie A defenses.
Rest of 1st half: Italy defends. They're
pretty good at it. South
Korea seems as confused as USA
looked against Poland.
Korea literally holds the ball
right at midfield for 30-40 seconds
at a time, almost motionless,
not even passing between each
other, while they look for
something to develop downfield. Their
idea seemed to be (a) long
flighted balls into the box, or (b) long
passes on the ground to a target
at the top of the box. Neither
look promising, and so they just
stand there. Very odd.
Long anything isn't a great idea
against Italy, because they
are rock-solid in the back, suck
up loose balls, and then toy
with you as you chase them. I thought Korea should have
tried to advance by dribbling and short-passing, but maybe
they never got around to
practicing that. Korea never maintains
any pressure in Italy's 3rd.
Most of 2nd half: Italy defends some
more. No surprise there.
87': Korea surges up the center. They pass to
the top right of
the
box. A Korean tries a
flick mini-lob pass into traffic in the
middle.
It drops in front of two
Italian defenders, who misplay it.
The first
one lunges for a header and
misses cleanly, the second one
volleys it off his knee and down
off his right tricep, and it drops
to
his foot just as Seol
Ki-Hyun arrives. Seol doesn't bother
to
collect the ball, he just shoots
it right off the defender's foot to
the right post. Buffon is
screened, and can only spectate.
1-1
Tremendous predatory instincts
to get his shot off before the
defense could
recover.
102': Korea free kick at the top of the box.
They uncork a nasty
shot on the ground to the right
post as the Italian wall helpfully
jumps in unison right over it. Buffon makes a tremendous diving
save with one hand.
103': Totti gets his 2nd yellow for
simulation.
116': South Korea plays up into gaping space on the
left. Lee
Chun-Soo lays it back to a
midfielder about 40m out. He lofts
a high cross to the far
post. Ahn Jung-Hwan outjumps his
defender, heads down to the far
post, and it's too perfect for
Buffon to save Italy
again. 2-1
Both sides missed some chances. A couple
minutes before the
winner, Lee crossed
to the center of the box and found THREE
UNMARKED TEAMMATES at the 2m line, but they
headed right
at Buffon. (Italy let 3 guys get loose in the
box?) Then Seol lost
the ball for a 2-on-1 Italian break, caught up,
took the ball off
Gattuso's foot, then tried a foolish blind backheel to "cleverly"
send
the ball past the onrushing Gattuso, and it
bounced off Gattuso's
shins and forward, letting him sail in alone
for a shot from 2m that
Lee Woon-Jae saved most excellently.
Ahn's header was very similar to the one he scored
against the
USA. Korea
spent enough of the game sending those high balls
in. Lightning strikes
eventually.
Fans in Korea are doubly happy because Japan
lost. That's
as much fun for them as us beating
Mexico.
--
Eric Wang
|