S. Korea plays Japan to draw at men's East Asian Cup football tourney
South Korea played its long-time rival Japan to a 1-1 draw in the men's East Asian Cup football tournament here Wednesday.
Midfielder Jang Hyun-soo put South Korea on board with a penalty in the 27th minute at Wuhan Sports Center Stadium, before Hotaru Yamaguchi equalized for Japan 12 minutes later.
South Korea still holds the edge in all-time meetings with 40 wins, 23 draws and 14 losses. South Korea had lost the previous three matches against Japan prior to Wednesday, and remains winless in their last five meetings, with the last victory having come in May 2010.
South Korea also missed out on a chance to exact revenge on Japan head coach Vahid Halilhodzic, a Bosnian who coached Algeria to a 4-2 victory over South Korea at last year's World Cup in Brazil.
South Korea, which defeated China 2-0 in the opener last Sunday, will face North Korea in the finale at 5:10 p.m. Sunday, or 6:10 p.m. in Seoul, at the same venue.
Japan, which lost to North Korea 2-1 last weekend, will face China for its final match at 8:10 p.m. Sunday, also in Wuhan.
The team with the best record after the round-robin play will be declared the champion of the four-nation event.
Japan is the defending champ. South Korea won the inaugural competition in 2003 and captured its second title in 2008.
South Korea head coach Uli Stielike said he felt his team outplayed Japan, the final score notwithstanding.
"Maybe the coach for Japan will think his team didn't give up much space, but we were the much more aggressive side," Stielike said. "For the 90 minutes, we played a much better match."
Stielike said he replaced eight starting players from the opener against China because he has faith in his entire team and he also wanted to rest tired players.
"As you all saw, the players were running on fumes toward the end," he added. "It wasn't easy to play in such hot and humid conditions. I wanted to use the players who were physically ready."
South Korea threatened early on, with winger Kim Min-woo launching a mid-range strike in the 14th minute and midfielder Jung Woo-young joining the fray five minutes later.
South Korea caught a break in the 25th minute when Japanese defender Masato Morishige was penalized after the ball went off his hand in the South Korean box. Jang then stepped up and fired the ball past Shusaku Nishikawa.
South Korea's lead lasted only a dozen minutes, as Yamaguchi jumped on the loose ball on the right side of the box for the equalizer.
Substitute Lee Jae-sung, an offensive sparkplug against China, tried to be the same in the second half in this match. His header in the 68th minute went off the crossbar. Five minutes later, he stripped a defender of the ball and turned around to fire a shot just above the net. (Yonhap)