By Bryan Kay
Staff Reporter
In what could turn out to be a defining moment in Group B of Asian qualifying for the 2010 World Cup, South Korea took a giant step towards South Africa by beating Saudi Arabia by 2-0 in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
The pressure had been mounting on Korean coach Huh Jung-moo after a sluggish start to the campaign, and the Taeguk Warriors had gone nearly two decades without a win over the Middle Eastern nation.
But the convincing two-goal win Wednesday night, while certainly not anywhere near enough to qualify, may prove the catalyst to spark the squad's charge for an eighth finals appearance.
Saudi Arabia are probably Korea's strongest challengers and the psychological advantage provided by the victory could be the missing component of a winning formula.
It was Huh's youthful forward combination of Lee Keun-ho and Park Chu-young who got the goals.
The first, scored by Daegu FC striker Lee, came with around 15 minutes left on the clock, via the industry of captain Park Ji-sung and Lee Young-pyo.
Borussia Dortmund defender Lee played the ball in from the left to the Manchester United winger, and he played a quick pass inside the box to Lee, who was on hand to sneak the ball past Saudi keeper Waleed Ali.
Korea, deploying a counter-attacking system, had looked shaky in the first 45 minutes, and the goal seemed to settle the players.
Then, deep inside injury time, Monaco striker Park curled a superb curling effort beyond Ali into the right corner of the net, ending the game as a contest.
After the game, Huh admitted he had been worried by his team's first-half showing.
''It looked quite unstable in the first half, but things turned better as time went," he told reporters. "The victory brought us the confidence that we can be stronger."
In truth, Korea had been aided by injuries to key Saudi players prior to the game, which left the Desert side depleted.
Their efforts were only stregthened when middway through the second half Saudi Arabia was reduced to 10 men when Naif Hazazi picked up his second yellow card of the game and was ordered off.
Korea now sit on top of Group B with seven points, three more than Saudi Arabia - now in joint fourth place with North Korea - and two ahead of Iran, which earned a point away to the United Arab Emirates the same night.
The squad's next fixture is away to Iran Feb. 11.
The result maintained Australia's perfect record from three games and the team that switched from Oceania to the Asia Confederation to achieve a more direct qualification route looks set to be one of the four qualifiers.
Japan's 3-0 victory over Qatar in Doha came with goals from Tatsuya Tanaka, Keiji Tamada and Marcus Tanaka as the team stayed two points behind the Socceroos with seven points. Qatar is third with four.