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| China's Wang Hong Liang (R)
blocks the ball away from South Korea's Cho Wan Kwang during
the final match of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Youth Championship in
Kuala Lumpur October 9, 2004.
[Reuters] |
Korea Republic and China will quickly forget the emotions of their AFC Youth Championship final as
they start preparations for the world event in the Netherlands next
June.
Although the Koreans are delighted with their 2-0 victory over China in
the final in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday night, it will be back to business
as soon as they return home.
Coach Park Sung-hwa said there is still a lot of work to do if the team
want to be successful in the Netherlands, and many obstacles to overcome.
"We are very happy to have won this tournament," said Park. "It has
been a difficult build-up, mainly because the clubs in Korea were not very
cooperative when it came to releasing players.
Indeed, it seemed during the early stages of the tournament that Korea
would be unable to defend their title, especially after a 3-0 opening-game
loss to Iraq. Only a 1-1 draw against Thailand in their final Group D
match enabled the Koreans to finish second in the group and advance to the
quarter-finals.
Park Chu-young scored the equaliser against Thailand and he was their
hero again in the final, scoring both goals and finishing with a
tournament-high total of six. Park, a 19-year-old striker with the Korean
University, also won the Emirates Most Valuable Player Award for the
tournament.
 Chinese coach Yin Tiesheng was also looking ahead to June after
watching his injury-hit side put up a battling performance in the
final.
"We had a lot of injuries so we could not put out our best
side," said Yin. "The players were also very tired and we knew it would be
difficult against this Korean side.
"But the team is evolving and
developing and this is a good foundation to work on as we look forward to
the World Youth Championship."
Yin started Manchester United player
Dong Fangzhuo for the first time but the 19-year-old failed to make an
impact and was substituted in the 60th minute.
"Dong was not fully
fit throughout the tournament that's why he was not able to play in all
the matches," said Yin. "In any case, I'm happy with the performances of
my players. They tried their best."
Park agreed with Yin on the
fact that China's players were weary but credited his own team on their
ability to take advantage of their opponents' weaknesses.
"We knew
it would be hard against China, especially since they have a strong defence," said Park. "But China looked
a bit tired and we told our players to run at them and
force them into mistakes."
(Agencies) |
Updated: 2004-10-10 09:18