At Last, Park Ji-sung Scores

Park Ji-sung, the first Korean player to play in the British Premier League, scored his first goal for Manchester United yesterday.

The goal came in the 2005-2006 Carling Cup quarterfinal match held in Birmingham’s Saint Andrews Stadium five minutes into the second half with the score, 1-0, Manchester leading.

Wes Brown lobbed the ball to Park in the right corner of the penalty zone. Park headed it to Louis Saha and penetrated into the goal area. Saha then passed the ball back to Park, who sent it hard into the net.

It was the end of a long wait for Park, 25 games after his U.K. debut in July against Hungary’s Debrecen VSC in a UEFA Champions League preliminary match.

To date, Park has played in 24 games total: 17 regular league games, six championship league games, and one Carling Cup match. Up until now, he recorded four assists but no goals.

Goals from Park and Saha gave Manchester United a 3-1 win and advanced the team to the cup semifinals.

Jong-Koo Yang yjongk@donga.com