By Kang Seung-woo
Staff Reporter
South Korea's U-17 football team finally picked up a long awaited victory Friday at the FIFA U-17 World Cup, raising their almost-blown hope of advancing to the second round, after a 2-1 win over Togo.
In their final qualifying match of Group A at the Ulsan Complex Stadium, Seol Jae-mun's equalizer and Yoon Bitgaram's winner helped the host past the first time World Cup qualifier.
Unlike the two previous lethargic matches, the Koreans dominated the African team from midway through the first half despite finding themselves trailing at first.
Togo broke the game open with midfielder Lalawele Atakora's mid-range blast.
In the 19th minute, Sapol Mani's free kick was lofted after a South Korean defender headed it away and then a dashing Atakora fired it directly into the right corner of the net to lift his team to a 1-0 lead.
During injury time, the goalless Koreans finally found the net.
A corner on the left side went to Ju Sung-hwan, who collected it on his chest and slipped a pass to the unmarked Seol Jae-mun, and he rolled it past goalkeeper Mensah Nsouhoho to make it 1-1.
From the kick-off of the second half, the winless Taeguk Warriors attacked Togo's side continuously to reverse the match but a lack of completion did not allow the winning goal until the 80th minute.
Midfielder Cho Beom-seok sent in a low cross on the left flank and Yoon flashed it into the net to give an edge to the South Korean squad.
The fate of the Korean team, which posts one win and two losses to rank third in the group, will be decided by other groups' results.
The preliminary round will come to an end Sunday and the top two teams of each group and the four best teams among those ranked third qualify for the round of 16.
Meanwhile, North Korea defeated New Zealand 1-0 on striker Rim Chol-min's winner 10 minutes from time in the final preliminary game of Group B.
With the win, they have an edge in acquiring a berth to the last 16 as a wild card.
In the other match of the group, first time qualifier England rallied to roll over favored Brazil 2-1 to advance to the second round as the leader.