Korea Gets 3rd Place in Asian Cup

Talk about pressure!!!

The Korean national team beat Japan yesterday in the 3rd place match of the 2007 Asian Cup. The match against Japan was their 3rd straight game in which the game ended in a 0-0 tie and had to be settled by PK shootout. In the Japan game, all 5 of the initial shooters scored their PKs. Then Korea's Kim Ji Woo scored Korea's 6th PK goal and then it was veteran goalkeeper Lee Woon Jae who blocked Japan's final PK attempt and secured the victory. Korea also survived playing 1 man down after the 56th minute when Kang Min Soo got ejected, along with the head coach and 2 of his assistants. This victory means that Korea gets an automatice berth in the 2011 Asian Cup as the top 3 teams in this year's tournament automatically qualify.

But man...why can't this team score? In 6 matches in the Asian Cup, they only scored a total of 3 goals! What's going on? Coach Verbeek will have a lot of questions to answer as to why they can't put the ball in the net. He even changed his strategy in the Japan match by putting in more strikers to try and instill more offense but it didn't work. Thank goodness for Lee Woon Jae who only gave up 3 goals in their 6 games. We'll have to wait and see. Korean hero Coach Hiddink also had a similar start and they ended up in the Top 4 in the World Cup. Of course, it would've helped if they had veterans Park Ji Sung, Seol Ki Hyun, and Lee Young Pyo on the team. They all play for the Premier League but couldn't play due to injuries.

In any case...congratulations to the Korean national team on a good showing!

2007 Asian Cup Match History:

Korea - Saudi Arabia: 1-1
Korea - Indonesia: 1-0
Korea - Bahrain: 1-2
Korea - Iran: 0-0 (4-2 PK) (Quarterfinal)
Korea - Iraq: 0-0 (3-4 PK) (Semifinal)
Korea - Japan: 0-0 (6-5 PK) (3rd place game)