Soccer: Hosts provide wake-up call for England

England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson will spend this week weighing up the good news and the bad after his team struggled to draw 1-1 with South Korea.

Although they avoided an embarrassing defeat in yesterday's pre-World Cup friendly at Sogwipo, England gave plenty of cause for concern as they failed to cope with the skilful, fleet-footed South Koreans in the second half.

Though the failure was due largely to the arrival of eight substitutes, many of whom could not cope with the unfamiliar 4-3-3 formation, England also lacked their usual fighting spirit.

"I think we gave Korea the possibility to win the ball a little bit too easily - many times," Eriksson said before paying tribute to the sharpness of England's opponents.

"They showed that they are aggressive. If you have too many touches on the ball against them, they will win it back...I was impressed."

He did not say the same of his own team, though neither did the Swede point to the numerous absences that contributed to yesterday's performance and may yet be a barrier at the finals.

With Gary Neville and Steven Gerrard left behind, captain David Beckham and Kieron Dyer recovering from injury, and Robbie Fowler and Nicky Butt ruled out of the Sogwipo game, England were well short of their best XI.

Neville's replacement at right-back, Danny Mills, was at times run ragged by Lee Chun-soo, although substitute Wes Brown made a better fist of it in the last 20 minutes.

Other substitutes were below par.

Midfield standby Trevor Sinclair failed to seize his chance and was duly left out when Eriksson later named his squad of 23 - the England manager preferring to gamble on Dyer making a full recovery from his knee injury.

Fellow midfielder Joe Cole showed willing but made little headway, Teddy Sheringham did not get a sniff of goal and defensive frailties were exposed when Park Ji-sung equalised with a free header inside the six-yard box.

Though Eriksson pointed to the Sogwipo grass slowing the pace of their usual game, there was no disguising the fact that England need to buck up their ideas in a hurry.

Their group F opener is looming on June 2 against Sweden, with the crunch match against one of the tournament favourites Argentina five days later.

"I hope that we can play better on the 2nd of June than we did today," was Eriksson's verdict, although yesterday's display was not all gloom and doom.

Along with Michael Owen's strike and an avoidance of major injuries, there was an impressive central midfield display by 21-year-old Owen Hargreaves, staking a claim to the slot vacated by Gerrard and expected to go to Butt.

"You saw him everywhere," said Eriksson of the energetic Bayern Munich player, who combines hard tackling with deft distribution.

"He's improved a lot technically in the last 15 months, since I saw him for the first time. I'm sure he will be very useful for us during this tournament."

Eriksson will also be looking for an improvement from the rest of his squad, starting with Sunday's friendly against Cameroon, or their stay at the tournament risks being a short one.

- REUTERS

More Soccer World Cup stories

Team lists | Schedule | Previous Winners

Interactive graphics:
Draws and team profiles