Lee Woon-jae Wins the Psychological Match.

Korea lead 4-3 after the kickers such as Hwang Sun-hong, Park Ji-sung, Seol Ki-hyun, and Ahn Jung-hwan succeeded their kicks. The fourth kicker of Spain was Joaquin Sanchez who played right wing and attacked the Korean goal gate with bullet fast speed and canon shoots.

The centroid of Lee Woon-jae, who was at the goal line, moved slightly to right. Dashing Sanchez hesitated a little. ‘Was it a faint…?’

Sanchez’s right footer headed toward the right side of the goal gate. When the ball hit Lee Woon-jae’s hand, the Spanish players were collapsed.

Then the ball that left the right foot of Hong Myung-bo, the Korea’s last kicker broke the goal net. Korea won the shoot out by 5-3 after the 120 minutes including the extra time.

It was a very close match for 120 minutes.

It was unlucky for Spain to miss so many chances. However, the tenacity and concentration of Korean players, who stayed in the game without a goal, were enough to win the game.

Korea had the momentum in the beginning of the game. The Spanish captain showed consternation when Park Ji-sung and Kim Nam-il made sharp through passes.

However, it did not last long. The momentum switched with a scissors kick that was missed by Baraja in the 18th minute. After that, Spain pressed Korea with strong midfielders such as De Pedro, Baraja, Helguera, and Sanchez.

The free kick by De Pedro in the 25th minute was blocked by the Korean defenders, and the header by Morientes in the 28th minute was denied by Lee, Woon-Jae.

The offensive movement of Spain continued. The header by Hiero following De Pedro’s free kick went over the cross bar, and the cross by Sanchez in the 42nd minute made a definite chance. During the injury time right before the end of the first half, dangerous shootings by De Pedro, and Hierro just missed the goal gate. Spain led overwhelmingly in shooting by 6-1. The 40,000 some home fans couldn’t even cry.

Spain’s offense was still sharp in the second half with dangerous shootings by Morientes and Sanchez.

Manager Guus Hidink who put Lee Eul-yong substituting injured Kim Nam-il, pulled out the second card. He switched Park Ji-sung as a midfielder and Lee Chun-soo as a right wing by substituted tired You Sang-chul with Lee Chun-soo.

The substitution was successful. Korea opened the right side attack with live overlapping by Park Ji-sung and Lee Chun-soo and got a corner kick in the 22nd minute of the second half and followed by menacing shootings by Lee, Chun-Soo and Park Ji-sung following the cross by Song Chong-guk.

After that, Korea continued a close match with slowed Spain, and manager Hidink prepared for the over time by putting Hwang Sun-hong in substituting the defender Kim Tae-young.

The misfortune of Spain continued in the over time. The definite shooting by Morientes hit the post and they could not even get a chance to kick the corner kick that they got right before the end of the over time.

Keuk-In Bae bae2150@donga.com