 Korea beat Costa Rica 2-0, Saturday on goals from Korea University's Cha Du-ri and Choi Tae-uk following impressive support play by Perugia's Ahn Jung-hwan at the Daegu World Cup Stadium. Ahn played an excellent game in midfield and in offense and set up Cha's goal in the 24th minute by taking three defenders with him before angling a waist high pass back to Cha who struck the ball home. Just before the end of the first half, Ahn had a chance himself but the ball slightly missed the left goalpost.
Gone were suspicions of his lack of defense skills. As soon as the ball left the opposite goalkeeper¡¯s hands, he became ¡®the first obstruction¡¯ and until substituted for 32 minutes into the second half, he was the perfect commander on the ground, winning the MVP vote. Coach Guus Hiddink, who is known to be stingy with compliments said, "Ahn must have been tired from jetlag but he played an impressive game," and looked very pleased.
"I was impressed by his enthusiasm to constantly look for goal opportunities and work hard" is how Hiddink explained his picking of Cha, despite disputes about his ability. His hard work finally paid off with his first goal after 12 unfruitful games. Cha was selected last October and made his in a friendly match with Senegal last November. Dissatisfied, people said that he was on the squad because of his father's glory." His father, Cha Bum-geun, was the former national team coach and the goal sees Cha as finally coping with the pressure.
His strong physical strength and fast speed earned him acknowledgement of his possibility, but his failure to score saw people was judge him as ¡®unsubstantial.¡¯ However, these helped him score one goal and set up the second for Choi.
(Fron Daegu, Kim Jae-hoon, mars@chosun.com )
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