South Korea line-up: S.R.Jung, Y.H.Cho, J.S.Park (c), J.W.Kim, C.Y.Park (S.Y.Lee, 87'), Y.P.Lee, J.S.Lee, S.Y.Ki (N.I.Kim, 74'), C.Y.Lee (J.S.Kim, 91'), K.H.Yeom, D.R.Cha
Greece line-up: Tzorvas, Seitaridis, Tziolis, Samaras (Salpingidis, 59'), Papadopoulos, Charisteas (Kapetanos, 61'), Karagounis (c) (Patsatzoglu, 46'), Vyntra, Torosidis, Gekas, Katsouranis
A game which contained a positive, hard working team and a negative, lacklustre team. The first half was completely dominated by South Korea who could have been more than one up at half time. Greece however did have a couple of chances early on but were wasted and decided to sit back and soak up pressure. A silly free-kick was given away by the corner flag in the seventh minute by Greece, they were made to pay for their lack of decent defending as the ball sailed over many of the blue shirted and defenders. Lee Jung Soo rushed in unmarked and side-footed the ball home from four yards. From that Greece looked out of shape and out of ideas.
The second half was no different and the wheels seemingly fell off when Greece's captain Karagounis was substituted. This tactical change made no difference and seven minutes into the half where yet more poor defending and passing led Park Ji-Sung to capitalise with his pace and a good finish to boot. Charisteas who was deputising for Karagouins as captain after his substitution was then substituted himself making it three Greek captains in one match, which doesn't bode well for any team.
In fairness Korea could have been much more than 2-0 with the chances they had but Greece did manage to pull off some decent last ditch tackles. I hope this result makes South Korea become more thought of and Seoul was definitely the place to have been in that night as they celebrated their forst win on foreign soil in a World Cup.
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