Group G
France 1, South Korea 1Delighted coach Dick Advocaat allowed South Korea time to savor their heroic 1-1 draw with 1998 winners France before knuckling down for the Group G crunch match with Switzerland.
South Korea, the surprise 2002 semi-finalists, battled back from a goal down to grab a point from France on Sunday and currently lead Group G on four points.
PHOTO: EPA
"It is now important we celebrate a little bit the draw against France," said Advocaat, who led Holland to the quarter-finals of the 1994 World Cup. "It [securing a draw with a top European side] does not happen often away from Korea and now is the time to let the boys celebrate and tomorrow night we start concentrating on the match against Switzerland."
"The last game [in the group] is the most important and that is against the Swiss," he said.
Advocaat said that he was proud of his players especially the way they took the game to France in the second half culminating in an equalizer from Manchester United star Park Ji-sung.
`great team'
"First of all I am very proud of the team," he said. "Same as the match with Togo, we went a goal down [to a Thierry Henry strike] and still managed to get a draw against, in my opinion, still a great French team.
"In the first half we were lucky to be only 1-0 down because they controlled the match for most of the 45 minutes -- it took a lot of energy out of us.
"In the second half we were better organized -- we brought in an extra winger [Seol Ki-hyeon] and from that moment some parts of the game we could control, we could attack," Advocaat said.
"Still you know that, with one break, the French can score the second but, fortunately for us, despite all the quality France have in their side, we could score a goal 10 minutes from the end," he added.
no goal
Advocaat batted away a question about whether South Korean keeper Lee Woon-jae had clawed back a first half header from Patrick Vieira after it had crossed the line.
"It was not a goal -- the score was 1-1," he said.
French coach Raymond Domenech saw the incident completely differently.
"This `goal' was not recognized," he said. "You need such a result [a goal] after a lot of pressure. That [the referee not awarding the goal] was the turning point in the game, yes."
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