Danes strike late but Korea not too down
Korea’s Olympic football team midfielder Moon Chang-jin celebrates after scoring a goal in the first half of a match against Denmark in his team’s third game of a four-nation Under-23 football tournament at Bucheon Stadium in Gyeonggi Province, Monday. The match ended in a 1-1 draw. / Yonhap
By John Duerden
An injury-time goal gave Denmark a 1-1 tie with Korea at Bucheon, Monday evening, and top spot in this four-nation Olympic invitational tournament.
The host was second in the competition going into the game just outside Seoul. The first match was a 1-0 win over Nigeria, Thursday, and then the young Taeguk Warriors needed another late goal to earn a 2-2 tie with Honduras, Saturday.
This time however, it was the opposition who scored with the game almost over.
Three points would have been enough to take first place and that looked to be on the cards as Moon Chang-jin scored with five minutes of the first half remaining.
Denmark, however, was a tough opponent. Ahead of Monday's game, the European team was the leader of the four team meet after two high scoring victories. The first was a 4-3 win over Honduras on Thursday that was followed by a 6-2 win over Nigeria.
It was something of a surprise then when at the end of the first half against Korea, not only had the European team failed to score but it was losing 1-0.
Korea had played an experimental team two days earlier against the Central Americans but was at almost full strength against the Danes.
Five minutes before the break, the Asian team broke the deadlock. The goal was scored by Moon Chang-jin after good work from Kim Seung-jun.
Denmark pushed forward in the second half in search of an equalizer and while the team had plenty of possession as the clock ticked, the host defended well.
In the end, Korea looked comfortable at the back but with just seconds remaining, a rebound shot from Nicolai Borck-Madsen looped over the goalkeeper Gu Sang-yoon and into the back of the net.
While it would have been good to win the mini-tournament, it was more about preparation for the Olympics in Brazil.
In truth, while it is good to win. The result in this kind of game is not so important. It is all about what happens in August.
To that end, for coach Shin Tae-yong it has been an instructive week. The team has shown spirit and fight though he would have been happier if there was a little more cohesion. That is not so easy in national team situations when time together is limited. At least, coach Shin will have a better idea of his best team.
Korea will take on Fiji, Germany and Mexico in the group stage of the 2016 Rio Olympics. If the team matches the 2012 edition and wins a medal then the players involved will earn an exemption from their mandatory military service.