Soccer: Koreans make history with place in semis

YOKOHAMA, Japan - Co-hosts South Korea created the most astonishing history and hysteria in the 72-year-old story of the World Cup when they beat Spain after a penalty shootout to reach the semi-finals on Saturday.

The Koreans, regarded as 40-1 outsiders to reach the last four on a par with lightweights Tunisia before the tournament, became the first team from Asia to get that far after beginning the tournament without a World Cup win to their name.

The victory, which provoked wild celebrations by 4.5 million people on the streets of Korea and nearly 40,000 in the Kwangju stadium, sent Dutchman Guus Hiddink's side into a semi-final with Germany in the capital Seoul on Tuesday.

Hiddink, a down-to-earth Dutchman turned Korean national hero, said: "I can't describe the feeling. More dreams have come true."

Four-times champions Brazil, who beat England 2-1 in their quarter-final on Friday, will play Turkey in the other semi-final in Saitama on Wednesday.

Senegal were bidding to become the first African team to reach the last four in the tournament's last quarter-final in Osaka on Saturday starting at 1130 GMT. Three-times winners Germany beat the US 1-0 to reach the last four on Friday.

The Koreans won the shootout 5-3 after the match finished goalless after 120 minutes. Captain Hong Myung-bo converted the final spot kick after Joaquin had missed Spain's fourth effort.

Around 4.5 million Koreans, about 10 per cent of the 48 million population, took to the streets to watch the game on giant television screens and screamed themselves hoarse before fireworks in Seoul whizzed into the air to mark the triumph.

Korea were 150-1 outsiders to win the trophy before the tournament opened on May 31 when anybody suggesting the co-hosts would beat Poland, Portugal, Italy and Spain on their way to the last four would have been dismissed as a football imbecile.

The bookmakers' odds were logical since the Koreans had not won a game in their five previous World Cup appearances.

But Hiddink has turned them into arguably the fittest side at the finals and they have beaten all four of those European sides. They are now being called the "Germans of Asia" because of the way they chase a game until the last second.

"It's a tremendous achievement by the boys, what they have done," he said. "We will approach the next match against Germany like, once more, a bunch of young dogs. We have gone so far and have nothing to lose and we will play the way we like to play."


The "Korea-mania" when millions of people, many of them teenagers, have created the fevered excitement usually associated with pop bands will be remembered as the most remarkable phenomenon of the first finals in Asia.

But the team needed luck to beat the Spanish. In extra time, Spain's Fernando Morientes twice thought he had settled the game.

He had a goal disallowed because the ball was ruled to have earlier run out of play before being deprived of a golden goal by the thickness of a paella pan when another shot hit the post.

The Morientes decision is likely to add fuel to an already fierce debate about the performances of officials at the finals. The Italians complained bitterly about the refereeing when the Koreans beat them in the second round with a golden goal.

Spain coach Jose Antonio Camacho was unhappy with the Egyptian referee Gamal Ghandour who ruled out the Morientes goal when one of his linesmen flagged.

"I thought the referee would be fairer in a quarter-final match like this," he said. "We fought to the end and worked so hard but we went out because South Korea were luckier than us."

- REUTERS

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