Korea beats Switzerland 2-1

Forward Park Chu-young watches the ball fly into the net as his header opens the scoring in Group B’s game against. Switzerland at the Coventry City Stadium, Monday. / Yonhap

By Jung Min-ho

Arsenal forward Park Chu-young provided the first goal while midfielder Kim Bo-kyung netted the winner for a 2-1 win against Switzerland on Monday at the Coventry City Stadium.

In Korea’s second Group B match, Park put his side ahead with a diving header from Nam Tae-hee’s cross in the 57th minute. But Switzerland instantly responded with Innocent Emeghara’s equalizer in what was almost a carbon copy of Park’s goal. Just three minutes later, Kim’s volley deflected off defender Fabian Frei to knock the wind out of the opponent’s sails.

“I think our deep desire for the victory brought us the good result,” Korea manager Hong Myung-bo said. “Since the next game will decide whether we advance to the next stage, we are just going to try our best.”

Sweeping aside doubts over his ability after failing to find the net in the previous match, Park reaffirmed his worth. Before the 27-year-old finally broke the stalemate at the beginning of the second half, Korea’s offense had pressured the European nation with several goal attempts from the Arsenal player before Kim emerged as the day’s hero.

“I believe we are developing at every moment of this tournament, especially as the defensive organization is getting better,” Kim said. “We are fully supporting the strikers from behind so we are getting more chances. From the moment we came together for the preparation camp we fully trusted our strikers and that brought us the goals today.”

Korea is now second on the Group B’s standing behind Mexico on goal difference after the North American team beat Gabon 2-0 earlier on the same day, with the top two sides advancing to the knockout stage.

Korea will face Gabon in the last group game at London’s Wembley Stadium at 1 a.m. Thursday (KST).

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