Koreans Earn First-Ever Win

(Tuesday, June 4, 2002) - South Korea scored its first ever win at a World Cup finals with a 2-0 upset Tuesday over Poland that sparked an outpouring of euphoria mixed with relief to cap Asian soccer's biggest day at soccer's showpiece event.

Veteran striker Hwang Sun-hong gave the Koreans a 1-0 lead with a 26th-minute strike and midfielder Yoo Sang-chul rocketed a right-foot drive from the edge of the area in the 53rd minute for the clincher.

After Hwang's goal, all 11 Korean players sprinted for the bench to celebrate with the whole squad.

After the match, the squad walked a slow victory lap around Busan's Asian Stadium to raucous cheers of almost 50,000 fans. "I feel exhausted, but I'm very happy," said Guus Hiddink, who took over as coach of the South Korea squad last year. "Like I've said for many weeks already, this team is going at its limit.

"I'm very proud of the boys, and we also had very good support from the fans."

For the entire second half, fans decked mostly in red shirts to support their beloved "Red Devils," chanted: "Oh, Oh, Korea!" "Oh, Pilsung Korea" for the entire second half. The chant translates to: "Korea's sure to win!"

The Koreans had gone winless at five previous World Cup finals appearances, but are under enormous pressure to reach the second round here after local organizers spent eight years and billions of dollars to prepare to co-host the tournament with Japan.

It's the first time the World Cup has been held in Asia. Earlier Tuesday, on the biggest day in the history of Asian soccer, Japan squandered a lead to tie 2-2 with Belgium and China, makings its World Cup debut, lost to Costa Rica.

The Koreans went into their opening Group D match with a 4-1 win over Scotland and a 1-1 draw with England and a narrow 3-2 loss to defending world champion France in tuneups, but few -- outside South Korea -- expected such a dominating performance against Poland.

Poland was the first European team to qualify -- apart from France which got an automatic spot as defending champion -- after topping its group regional qualifying, but have been patchy since with a home loss to Japan and an uninspiring 1-0 win over Estonia in recent warmups.

Polish goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek, who plays for Liverpool in the English Premier League and is rated among the best at this tournament, had two slip ups against the Korean attack.

Hwang, 33, opened his fourth World Cup campaign with a bang, connecting with a neat cross from Lee Eul-yong and driving a left-footed volley beyond Dudek's outstretched hands.

Dudek got both hands to Yoo's drive but didn't get enough purchase to stop the powerful shot.

He did make some key saves, tipping Park Ji-Song's curling right-foot volley over the crossbar in the 49th minute and blocking Ahn Jung-hwan's shot in the last minute of regular time.

Ahn, who replaced Hwang in the 51st minute, miscued a shot to the left of goals in the 79th minute that would have had Dudek in trouble and didn't get enough power onto a free kick in the 85th minute to cause much trouble.

Yoo, who'd also found the back of the net in the 38th minute but didn't get the goal because he was ruled offside, was replaced by Lee Chun-soo in the 62nd minute.

The win will give the Koreans huge confidence going into their remaining group matches against the United States and Portugal. Poland, which was considered a favorite to advance to the second round from Group D along with the Portuguese, needs to regroup quickly to have any chance of making the last 16 in its first trip back to the World Cup since 1986.

Lineups:

South Korea: 1-Lee Woon-jae; 7-Kim Tae-young, 20-Hong Myung-bo (captain), 4-Choi Jin-cheul; 13-Lee Eul-yong, 5-Kim Nam-il, 6-Yoo Sang-chul (Lee Chun-Soo 62nd), 22-Song Chong-guk; 9-Seol Ki-hyeon (Cha Du-ri 89th), 18-Hwang Sun-hong (Ahn Jung-hwan 51st, 21-Park Ji-sung.

Poland: 1-Jerzy Dudek; 4-Michal Zewlakow, 6-Tomasz Hajto, 15-Tomasz Waldoch (captain), 20-Jacek Bak (Tomasz Klos 51st); 10-Radoslaw Kaluzny (Marcin Zewlakow 65th), 7-Piotr Swierczewski, 18-Jacek Krzynowek, 21-Marek Kozminski; 19-Majiej Zurawski, 11-Emmanuel Olisadebe.

Referee: Oscar Ruiz (Colombia)