Clumsy Shots – Defense. . . “Irritated Hiddink”

Head coach Guus Hiddink remained standing throughout the match to instruct his team, but later shut his mouth with an unsatisfactory look on his face.

The 2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup Group B match between Korea and Cuba took place at Pasadena’s Rose Bowl stadium in Los Angeles on the 24th.

International Football Federation (FIFA)’s 42nd ranked Korea tied 0 – 0 with Cuba, which is ranked 75th, despite the expectation of an easy victory.

The offense was helpless before the enemy’s tight defense, and the game ended without a goal after missing several chances.

Korea now has the same record as Cuba with 1 victory and 1 defeat, but marked little higher in the goal scores advancing to the quarterfinals. Korea will face Group A’s top team, Mexico at 5 a.m. on the 28th.

Korea has suffered a series of defeats since the beginning of the New Year with the loss to L.A. Galaxy in a practice match and to the U.S. team in the first round of the Gold Cup. Korea even let Hwang Sun-Hong in to win the first victory, but failed again.

The Korean team led a disappointing match on the day, showing a monotonous offense, inaccurate passes, and loose defense, even when one considers the injured players.

The game was uneventful 20 minutes into the first-half when Lee Chun-Soo kicked the first shot in the 21st minute, but the ball flew above the goal post. Korea faced a crisis in the 39th minute when they made a bad back- pass, but GK Kim Byung-Ji ran out of the penalty zone to clear it.

As the second-half started, Korea took out Hwang Sun-Hong and Lee Chun-Soo to let in Kim Do-Hoon and Lee Ul-Yong. Korea then gained the lead in offense but failed score a goal.

Park Ji-Sung shot the ball from the center of the Cuban penalty zone in the 25th minute but was way off, and Lee Young-Pyo had a good shot in front of the Cuban goal but the shot was too weak and bounced off a defender.

Keuk-In Bae bae2150@donga.com