Kim and Ahn Satisfy Coelho

Now two soccer players, or Ahn Chung-hwan (Shimizu S-Pulse) and Kim Dae-ui (Sungnam Ilhwa), are likely to serve on the South Korean national team led by Coelho. Ahn has earned a nickname "Emperor of Ring" due to his unique goal ceremony in the last World Cup. On the other hand, Kim was the MVP for the 2002 pro season. South Korea`s new national team coach Coelho reportedly got satisfied with their performance and is seriously considering putting them on the national team.

The prediction came out after a game between Sungnam Ilhwa and Shimizu S-Pulse, which took place yesterday in China as part of the 2002-2003 Asian Champions League. Coelho watched the game in person in the stadium. Ilhwa was the champion team in South Korea, while S-Pulse won a championship in Japan.

S-Pulse centered its attack around Ahn, and Ahn first hit the net at 53` with his miraculous shooting. Kim struck back and made a goal just 2 minutes to the end of the game. Thus, the two are considered most promising candidates to serve on the national team headed by Coelho.

In the end, Ilhwa won the game 2-1. Even after losing the first goal to Ahn, it got even with S-Pulse in the middle of the latter half, and overturned the game with Kim`s goal. Winning two games in a row, Ilhwa is leading the group and is likely to move up the semifinal.

Leading S-Pulse, Ahn demonstrated an excellent performance enough to satisfy Coelho. Ahn had two chances of making goals, which were frustrated by the water-tight defense of Ilhwa. Finally in the latter half, brushing off Park Choong-gyun and Lee Sung-woon of Ilhwa with wonderful feinting motions, Ahn shot the ball into the net with his left foot.

With its star players like Kim Do-hoon and Shin Tae-yong, Ilhwa pushed S-Pulse up against the wall many times. But it failed to score any until Shasha got out a penalty kick, which led to a goal leveling off the game.

Then, Kim Dae-ui kicked the ball passed from left by Kim Jung-jae into the net, securing the victory for his team.

Soon-Il Kwon stt77@donga.com