S. Korea coach says referee 'totally destroyed match' after women's football loss to N. Korea
South Korea head coach Colin Bell reacts to a play against North Korea during the teams' quarterfinals match in the women's football tournament at the Asian Games at the Wenzhou Sports Centre Stadium in Wenzhou, China, Sept. 30. Yonhap
South Korea head coach Colin Bell went off on officials after his team's loss to North Korea in the quarterfinals of the Asian Games women's football tournament in China, Saturday, saying the referee Pansa Chaisanit in particular "totally destroyed the match."
South Korea suffered a 4-1 loss, after playing more than half the match down a player at the Wenzhou Sports Centre Stadium, southeast of the main host city, Hangzhou. Bell was especially upset about the play that sent his forward Son Hwa-yeon off the field with her second yellow.
Son was shown her second yellow card of the match after making some contact with North Korean goalkeeper Kim Un-hui in the box while trying to meet a long-distance pass from midfield. Kim, who charged out of the goal to clear the ball, went down in apparent pain but looked none the worse for wear only moments later, when Son was sent off.
The match was tied 1-1 at that moment, but North Korea capitalized on the one-player advantage in the second half and put up three more goals on the board for the win.
In a long rant at the post-match presser, Bell lashed out at Chaisanit for influencing the match.
"It started off really well for us. North Korea equalized but we were still really in the game," Bell said. "The goalkeeper comes out with the fists out of the five-meter area. There's maybe a bit of contact and the referee decides to take charge of the game and absolutely destroy what was potentially a brilliant match."
Bell wondered aloud why referees with more big-match experience weren't on hand in China, given that the FIFA Women's World Cup ended only a few weeks ago.
"I asked the fourth official if the referee was in the World Cup and the answer was no," Bell said. "And I think you can see why in this game. The game was great up until that card. That's a game changer and referees shouldn't influence the game. It's as simple as that."
Bell was also not pleased with the eight minutes of additional time in the second half, when North Korea were already up 3-1. South Korea got called for a penalty during added time and North Korea scored to rub salt into the South Korean wounds. A South Korean player was stretchered off with an injury during those extra minutes, too.
Son Hwa-yeon of South Korea, left, is shown the red card during the women's football quarterfinals match against North Korea at the Asian Games at Wenzhou Sports Centre Stadium in Wenzhou, China, Sept. 30. Yonhap
"My girls held on until the 83rd minute and really really worked hard. They run their hearts out and then all of a sudden, there's eight minutes to carry on for absolutely no reason," Bell said.
He went on tongue in cheek, "So you push your players even more in that time. We concede the penalty in that time we get another player injured. So thank you very much."
Bell also expressed his frustration with the organization of the competition.
Initially, 18 teams entered the tournament, and they were divided into three groups of four and two groups of three.
But then Iran and Cambodia withdrew, leaving the competition with 16 nations. Bell felt the tournament organizers should have shuffled the groups so that there would be four groups of four and every team would play the same number of matches in the group stage.
Instead, North Korea ended up playing Singapore twice in a four-day span after Cambodia pulled out of Group C. They had two days of rest before taking on South Korea.
South Korea, on the other hand, played three matches in Group E over seven days, and only had a one day break before the quarterfinals.
"We go into this ... We've got a player less, they've played a game less. All these things just add up and then you're supposed to be calm and cool and calculated as a coach," Bell said. "I protect my players. I protect my girls. I love my team. I love my girls and that's why I'm so angry.
"I am a fair sportsman. I want fair sport. Aggressive, hard but fair. And that was complete opposite of fairness," Bell added. "I hope that everybody writes that: fairness at first and this was not fair. Please pass on this message to all of your officials. I'd love to meet them."
Bell said a tournament of this magnitude should have "the top people, the top referees, the top organization."
"In this tournament, you've got world class players on you from South Korea, from North Korea. The whole thing has to be world class," he said. "And please, next time when you have 16 teams, please, please, please have four groups of four to make it fair." (Yonhap)