Lebanon took a 1-0 lead over South Korea on Sunday in their final match of the second round in the Asian World Cup qualifying campaign. The opening goal by Soony Saad came just 12 minutes into the match, but Lebanon looked far more interested in delaying the match than in scoring an insurance goal.
One after another, Lebanese players went down on the pitch writhing in pain, after relatively soft or even phantom contact with South Korean opponents. They took their sweet time on the pitch, grabbing whatever body parts that they claimed were hurting, only to get back on their feet so they could fall down again later.
These time-delaying tactics — if one could call it tactical — are hardly new in football, especially when underdogs take a lead against favored teams.
A lesser South Korean team of the recent past would have let their frustrations boil over and affect their performance. On Sunday, it was a much different story.
Even as their head coach Paulo Bento kept complaining to officials about Lebanese players’ embellishment, South Korean players kept their cool on a hot afternoon and rallied for a 2-1 victory.
Captain Son Heung-min was the central figure in the rally. It was his corner kick in the 50th minute that set up the equalizer. Song Min-kyu’s header went in off the face of defender Maher Sabra, who was charged with an own goal, and goalkeeper Mehdi Khalil stood frozen in his spot as the ball suddenly changed direction.
Son later helped set up the penalty that he himself converted to put South Korea up 2-1. He led the fast break, dribbling in untouched from the midfield to just outside the box. Son then passed it off to Nam Tae-hee coming down the right side. Nam’s cross attempt deflected off the hand of the defender Joan Oumari.
Son scored on the resulting penalty and South Korea didn’t look back.
Once South Korea took the lead, Lebanese players did a far better job staying on their feet, and didn’t stay on the ground after contact as long as they did in the first half.
But with Son completely in control as the facilitator and South Korea maintaining pressure on the offensive end, Lebanon never got another chance to delay the match.
Bento said the slim margin of Sunday’s victory didn’t reflect the quality of South Korea’s performance.
“I think we played well enough to have won by more goals today,” Bento said. “People tend to reach conclusions based on final scores, but I believe that our process was great, regardless of the one-goal margin.”
Bento said Song and second-half substitute Nam Tae-hee had particularly strong games in the midfield.
“Even though we had a different formation in the second half than in the first, Song Min-kyu did an excellent job on both ends of the pitch,” Bento said of the 21-year-old rising star. “Nam Tae-hee has been great throughout the camp. He settled in nicely off the bench today.”
Bento contended that there’s nothing his players could do about Lebanon’s delaying antics and said, “there are only three people on the field who can do something about such things,” in reference to match officials.
“If we want to have more entertaining football, then referees have to come up with responses,” Bento said. “If we see more of the same thing in the next qualification round, then it isn’t good for the development of football in Asia. I hope referees will be more proactive in their response to time-delaying tactics.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency