South Korea ties 2-2 in friendly with Bahrain

SEOUL, Feb. 5 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's national football team was held to
another draw in a friendly with Bahrain in Dubai on Wednesday, disappointing
Korean fans ahead of the team's 2010 World Cup qualifier against Iran, football
officials in Seoul said Thursday.

The Korean squad arrived in the United Arab Emirates last week ahead of their
match with Iran in Tehran on Feb. 11. The disappointing finish against Bahrain
follows a draw in a friendly with Syria on Sunday.
Bahrain, ranked 89th in the FIFA world standings, took the lead with a penalty in
the second half with South Korean striker Kim Jung-woo equalizing in the 80th
minute. The game ended in a two-all draw after both teams scored again in the
final minutes.
South Korea's defense failed to impress, showing little improvement from their
lackluster performance against Syria, which ended in a 1-1 draw on an own goal by
the Syrian squad.
"We scored two goals, it's a good point. And our performance in the first half
was satisfactory," South Korean coach Huh Jung-moo was quoted as saying after the
game. "We gave them too many decisive chances as we made mistakes in defense and
lost focus. We must not repeat this against Iran."
South Korea, who stands 42nd in the FIFA rankings, wraps up the week-long
training session which included the two friendlies and will head to Tehran on
Thursday for the Asian qualifier against the Middle East rival.
"This game will be a good opportunity to improve players' condition," Huh said.
"They will need to work harder to play the full 90 minutes in the upcoming
match."
Kim, who scored South Korea's first goal against Bahrain, said his team "improved
a lot from the previous game against Syria. We will show a better performance
against Iran."
The team is expected to get a boost when members currently playing in European
clubs, including Park Ji-sung of Manchester United and Lee Young-pyo of Germany's
Borussia Dortmund, join the squad next week. Officials in Seoul anticipated a
stronger showing against Iran.
Ten Asian teams are competing in two groups in the qualifying round that will end
in June this year. The top two from each group are given berths in the World Cup
in South Africa, while the third-placed finishers will hold their own playoff
round.
South Korea drew 1-1 with North Korea in September, downed the United Arab
Emirates 4-1 in October and defeated Saudi Arabia 2-0 in November.
The squad will face North Korea again in Seoul in April.
brk@yna.co.kr
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