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Email: sport@gdn.com.bh 28 WORLD SPORT Gulf Daily News Friday, 23rd January 2015 M E L B O U R N E : South Korea’s golden boy Son Heung-Min struck twice in extra-time to give the Taeguk Warriors a 2-0 win over Uzbekistan in a nail-biting Asian Cup quarter- final yesterday. The man dubbed “Sonaldo” by his team-mates scored with a diving header after 104 minutes and slammed home a second moments before the final whistle, leaving on a stretcher with ex- haustion as the Koreans set up a meeting against either Iran or Iraq in the last four. “There was big pres- sure on us,” South Korea coach Uli Stielike told reporters after coaxing his team of walking wounded to a fourth straight win. “If we’d lost, we would have been on the plane home and face a lot of criticism.” Injuries had already ruled out winger Lee Chung-Yong and midfielder Koo Ja-Cheol, while superstar Son has yet to fully re- gain fitness after being floored by a flu bug earlier in the competi- tion. “No other team has had to show such mental strength and sacrifice as our boys,” added Stie- like. “To lose two of their leaders and still pick them themselves up. I nearly didn’t pick Son because of his illness - he’s still not 100 percent. “I told the players this morning that we are all human and every- one has a shitty day. The prob- lem is getting to 90 minutes and still being ready to push through. The boys played 120 minutes and they were all dead. Now our biggest issue is medical.” South Korea, World Cup semi-finalists in 2002 but seeking to end 55 years of hurt in Asia’s showcase tournament, had to toil for their victory against 2011 semi-finalists Uzbekistan in Mel- bourne.
Goalkeeper Kim Jin-Hyeon raced off his line to deny Sanjar Tursunov during the early skir- mishes as Uzbekistan’s aerial as- sault caused havoc in the Korean defence.
At the other end, Son’s curling effort was clawed away brilliant- ly by Ignatiy Nesterov. ‘Sonaldo’ double sinks Uzbekistan n South Korea’s Son, No. 7, about to score his second goal against Uzbekistan CANBERRA: Emotions are always high when Iran and Iraq meet on the football pitch. The political histo- ry between the two Middle Eastern neighbours always provides both teams with added motivation. Today, the rivals will clash in the quarter-fi- nals of the Asian Cup in Canberra and the stakes could not be higher but bragging rights are only part of the equation. Iraq coach Radhi Shenaishil has warned his players to forget about who they’re playing, tell- ing them that cool heads are needed with the big- ger carrot of a semi-final against South Korea in Sydney awaiting the winner. “There’s history between the two teams.” he said. “(But) I want to see a quality match. We are in the quarter-finals and we want to give the right impression of football in Asia. “Both Iran and Iraq will be telling their players to have a quality game and forget their emotions. On the day, the players are there to do their duty.” Both teams go into the match full of confi- dence and harbouring greater ambitions of win- ning the title. Iraq defied the odds and the troubles in their war-torn homeland to win the 2007 Asian Cup and are hoping to repeat the fairytale run this time.
Struggle They were expected to struggle in the pool stage but beat Jordan and Palestine and lost narrowly to Japan to finish runner-up in Group D. Iraq’s driving force remains Younis Mahmoud, their talismanic striker who scored the winner in the 2007 Asian Cup final against Saudi Arabia. Mahmoud missed a penalty when Iran beat Iraq 1-0 in a warm-up played in Wollongong a week before the Asian Cup started and Shenaishil said he was expecting another tight battle. “It’s not going to be an easy match between the two teams but hopefully we can produce some- thing,” he said. “They are a strong team. We’ve played them previously in a friendly. It’s good to play against a strong team before competitions, to see your advantages and disadvantages.” Iran have won the Asian Cup three times but not since 1976. It has been a long and frustrating run for Team Melli but things are starting to fall into place. They are currently the highest ranked team in Asia and sailed through the pool phase without giving up a goal, although they needed a stop- page-time winner to beat the UAE to ensure they finished top of Group C. “This is exactly where everything starts,” Iran coach Carlos Queiroz said. “We played against them in a friendly be- fore the tournament started and I saw them play against Jordon and Japan.” Emotions are high as Iraq take on Iran Striker Lee Jeong-Hyeop’s header forced another acrobatic save from Nesterov five minutes after the break, but moments later Kim’s attempted clearance al- most ricocheted into the Korean goal after cannoning off defender Kim Jin-Su’s backside. The Koreans continued to press, a mazy run from Son tak- ing him past three players only to be robbed by a last-ditch tackle as he prepared to pull the trigger. An air-shot from Nam Tae- Hee with the goal at his mercy added to South Korea’s frustra- tion, though the Red Devils were lucky to escape when Lutfulla Turaev contrived to miss an open goal after 78 minutes after being picked out by Sardor Rashidov. But as both teams began to wilt, Son popped up to glance Kim Jin-Su’s dinked cross past Nesterov’s despairing dive be- fore collapsing to the turf with fatigue. n Australia’s Cahill performs an overhead kick to score against China BRISBANE: Tim Cahill said he was going nowhere after netting a stun- ning double to fire Australia into the Asian Cup semi-finals yesterday. The Socceroos talisman, who scored with an outrageous bicycle kick and a trademark header to see off China 2-0 in Bris- bane, rejected any suggestion he may soon hang up his boots. “I’m not going nowhere, mate,” snapped the 35-year-old when asked about his future. “My main focus is the next game - why look to the future about what’s going to happen? “As old as I am, I keep hearing the same story about when am I going to depart. After tonight it will probably be a couple of weeks before they say it again.” Cahill, Australia’s record goalscorer, said his overhead kick shortly after half-time against the Chinese was not as good as a sizzler he bagged for Everton against Chelsea in 2007. Asked whether he had scored a bicycle kick before, Cahill said: “One, against Chelsea for Everton. I think that one was a bit better, but I’ll take this one today.” Sublime The Sydney native, now with the New York Red Bulls, scored one of the goals of last year’s World Cup in Brazil with a sublime left-foot vol- ley against the Netherlands. Cahill took his tally for Australia to 39 as the Socceroos bid for a first Asian Cup title, which could trigger a groundswell of interest in the sport in a country dominated by cricket, rugby and Australian rules football. His acrobatic opener flew past China goal- keeper Wang Dalei on 49 minutes and in the 65th, Cahill rose to glance a pinpoint header into the bottom corner from Jason Davidson’s cross. I’m not yet done says Cahill n Iraqi men wave their national flag in the streets of Baghdad as they celebrate their team’s 2-0 win over Palestine on Tuesday M E L B O U R N E :
Reigning champions Japan have cruised into the last eight of the Asian Cup but should face the first proper test of their title credentials when they take on the UAE in today’s quar- ter-final in Sydney. Inspired by midfielder Omar Abdulrahman, the Emiratis were within a controversial stop- page-time goal of topping their first round group and produced one of the performances of the tournament to thrash Qatar 4-1 in their opener. They will have to be at their very best at Stadium Australia to beat the four-times champion Samurai Blue, who have looked unstoppable going forward and have yet to concede a goal in the tournament so far. Japan coach Javier Aguirre might need to make the first change to his starting line-up in four matches in Australia after cen- tral defender Masato Morishige took a knock on the head in their final group game against Jordan. There are no problems up front, however, where striker Keisuke Honda has justified his billing as Asia’s top footballer by scoring a goal a game. Shinji Kagawa will also take a confidence boost from having broken a long scoring drought in the 2-0 victory over Jordan on Tuesday which wrapped up Ja- pan’s group campaign. Honda added the quick turn- around for Japan to his list of complaints about the tournament but the Emiratis would be unwise to underestimate Japan’s determi- nation to defend their title. Japan set for tough UAE challenge Download 37.21 Kb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
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