Seol Ki-hyeon scored on his return to national team duty as South Korea defeated Australia 3-1 in a soccer friendly in Seoul yesterday.
An action-packed first half saw South Korea take a two-goal lead by the 20-minute mark and Patrick Kisnorbo head Australia back into contention soon after. The second half was relatively quiet until Fulham’s Seol headed past club teammate and Socceroos goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer late in the game.
The hosts went ahead after just five minutes. A slip from Australia defender Shane Stefanutto gave Lee Chung-yong the opportunity to find Park Chu-young inside the Australian area and the Monaco striker rolled a low shot past Schwarzer.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Fifteen minutes later, more lax defending allowed Lee Jang-soo to turn the ball into the Australian net from close range.
The Socceroos were back in the game after 33 minutes as Leeds United defender Patrick Kisnorbo got to a Mark Bresciano free kick before Korean goalkeeper Lee Woon-jae, heading into an empty net.
South Korea was on top of the match for long periods, but with the Australian threat from set pieces the lead never looked safe.
Substitute Nick Carle forced a flying save from Lee with a long-range shot midway through the half as well as a fierce freekick from Bresciano.
With four minutes left, Manchester United’s Park Ji-sung crossed for Seol, in his first appearance for the national team for almost 18 months, to head the goal and seal a deserved win.
In the Netherlands, Japan beat the hosts 3-1 in their friendly yesterday.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier