"Post-Mideast assessment of Steilike
By John Duerden
Another game with Iran, another controversy and another set of talking points and another level raised in one of Asia's biggest and fiercest soccer rivalries.
South Korea was furious at the end of the 90 minutes of a friendly against Iran last Tuesday in Tehran. Yet, as the men in red pushed and shoved those in white and were pushed and shoved in return, there should have been some smiles too. It hurts to lose 1-0, it definitely hurts to lose a third successive game by that scoreline to Iran, but there were plenty of positive signs.
Basically, Korea was the superior team. Four days after winning in Jordan, the Taeguk Warriors went to perhaps the toughest arena in Asia and had the host pinned back for much of the 90 minutes. If attackers had been more composed and accurate in front of goal then it could have been different but then this is a common refrain.
Still, Son Heung-min, Lee Chung-yong and Ki Seung-yeung had good games and the new central defensive partnership of Kwak Tae-hwi and Jang Hyun-soo was solid. The goal conceded was controversial and unnecessary.
Unnecessary because, with ten minutes remaining, Korea had multiple opportunities to snuff out a Persian attack before a free-kick was given away in a dangerous area and controversial because when the resulting shot came back off the post, Sardar Azmoun seemed to foul goalkeeper Kim Jin-hyeon as he headed the rebound into the net.
That annoyed the visitor and understandably so. Not only was there frustration at being behind after being on top for most of the game but few, perhaps almost no, referees would have allowed the goal. Korea's stars become more irate as they felt that Iran's players deliberately ran down the clock in the last few minutes -faking injuries, keeping hold of the ball when the referee had awarded a free-kick to the East Asians and that kind of thing. Tensions boiled over - there was nothing friendly about this.
There is an undercurrent of hostility that now pervades this fixture between two giants on the opposite end of the continent. Iran and South Korea have met at the quarterfinal stage at every Asian Cup since 1996 but it was the two meetings during qualification for the 2014 World Cup which took it all to a new level. There's no need to go over it now but Korea complained at the training facilities it was given in Tehran and then the row simmered for months, coming to a head in June 2013 in Ulsan.
In truth, it is a useful rivalry for both teams. It gives Korea a relationship with a team outside the sometimes febrile region of East Asia and Japan, North Korea and China. Iranian officials find it hard to attract strong opposition to Tehran, this was Iran's first game since the World Cup (in contrast, this was Korea's sixth), and the fact that the Taeguk Warriors made the journey at all was appreciated.
And coach Uli Stielike will have learned more about this team in this kind of test than in five games in Seoul against low to mid-ranking South or Central American opposition. This was as close to a competitive game as it is possible for a friendly to be. Before Korea takes the field again, the German, still just two months into the job, must select his roster for the Asian Cup, now less than two months away.
The game may have ended in a painful 1-0 defeat but if the benefits are seen in January then it really will have been a worthwhile trip."
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news...36_168676.html
By John Duerden
Another game with Iran, another controversy and another set of talking points and another level raised in one of Asia's biggest and fiercest soccer rivalries.
South Korea was furious at the end of the 90 minutes of a friendly against Iran last Tuesday in Tehran. Yet, as the men in red pushed and shoved those in white and were pushed and shoved in return, there should have been some smiles too. It hurts to lose 1-0, it definitely hurts to lose a third successive game by that scoreline to Iran, but there were plenty of positive signs.
Basically, Korea was the superior team. Four days after winning in Jordan, the Taeguk Warriors went to perhaps the toughest arena in Asia and had the host pinned back for much of the 90 minutes. If attackers had been more composed and accurate in front of goal then it could have been different but then this is a common refrain.
Still, Son Heung-min, Lee Chung-yong and Ki Seung-yeung had good games and the new central defensive partnership of Kwak Tae-hwi and Jang Hyun-soo was solid. The goal conceded was controversial and unnecessary.
Unnecessary because, with ten minutes remaining, Korea had multiple opportunities to snuff out a Persian attack before a free-kick was given away in a dangerous area and controversial because when the resulting shot came back off the post, Sardar Azmoun seemed to foul goalkeeper Kim Jin-hyeon as he headed the rebound into the net.
That annoyed the visitor and understandably so. Not only was there frustration at being behind after being on top for most of the game but few, perhaps almost no, referees would have allowed the goal. Korea's stars become more irate as they felt that Iran's players deliberately ran down the clock in the last few minutes -faking injuries, keeping hold of the ball when the referee had awarded a free-kick to the East Asians and that kind of thing. Tensions boiled over - there was nothing friendly about this.
There is an undercurrent of hostility that now pervades this fixture between two giants on the opposite end of the continent. Iran and South Korea have met at the quarterfinal stage at every Asian Cup since 1996 but it was the two meetings during qualification for the 2014 World Cup which took it all to a new level. There's no need to go over it now but Korea complained at the training facilities it was given in Tehran and then the row simmered for months, coming to a head in June 2013 in Ulsan.
In truth, it is a useful rivalry for both teams. It gives Korea a relationship with a team outside the sometimes febrile region of East Asia and Japan, North Korea and China. Iranian officials find it hard to attract strong opposition to Tehran, this was Iran's first game since the World Cup (in contrast, this was Korea's sixth), and the fact that the Taeguk Warriors made the journey at all was appreciated.
And coach Uli Stielike will have learned more about this team in this kind of test than in five games in Seoul against low to mid-ranking South or Central American opposition. This was as close to a competitive game as it is possible for a friendly to be. Before Korea takes the field again, the German, still just two months into the job, must select his roster for the Asian Cup, now less than two months away.
The game may have ended in a painful 1-0 defeat but if the benefits are seen in January then it really will have been a worthwhile trip."
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news...36_168676.html
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