Hong Kong captain Huang Yang and South Korea's Kim Bo-kyung vie for the ball. Photo: Reuters
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https://scmp.com/sport/football/article/3041694/eaff-e-1-football-championship-hong-kong-lose-2-0-south-korea-their Football
EAFF E-1 Football Championship: Hong Kong lose 2-0 to South Korea in their opening match
- Hosts eventually break Hong Kong’s resistance just before the break in front of a sparse crowd in Busan
- Hong Kong coach Mixu Paatelainen disappointed with the result but looks forward to ‘fantastic’ Japan in their next match
Hong Kong goalkeeper Yapp Hung-fai gets in a tangle with a South Korea player during their match at the EAFF Championship in Busan. Photo: Reuters
Victory eluded Hong Kong in a first appearance at the men’s EAFF Football Championship since 2010 as they lost 2-0 to South Korea in Busan on Wednesday night.
A spirited defensive performance ended with another disappointment against the hosts.
Rafts of empty seats were visible at the Busan Asiad Stadium, from the 2002 Fifa World Cup, even with the hosts involved, perhaps because the side featured few of the star names in recent Fifa World Cups.
Glossing over the absence of AFC Footballer of the Year Son Heung-min, South Korea coach Paulo Bento’s starting eleven featured mostly players who had played at the last World Cup in Russia last year and famously beat Germany to knock them out.
Aside from that other players were in the largely-domestic based 23-man squad starring in this season’s just concluded K-League.
Lacking the top-level international experience of the Koreans did not prove an obstacle to Hong Kong as the obvious gulf in quality took a while to tell in the scoreline.
Online, the statistics suggested the dominance of the South Koreans, who had countless corners and the lion’s share of the possession by half-time.
Upsettingly for the visitors it was the stroke of half-time that brought the opening goal and it came from a different dead-ball situation.
Hong Kong’s James Ha (centre) tries to outpace his marker. Photo: HKFA
No one but Hong Kong skipper Huang Yang was surprised at the handball that gave away a free-kick inside the D, and then his Kitchee teammate Helio was among those who did not jump for the subsequent set-piece.
Gratingly for the Hong Kong coaching team, only the side’s sole forward James Ha attacked the ball but that did little to prevent South Korea’s Hwang In-beom stroking home after a decoy run from Kim Bo-kyung. The ball cannoned past Yapp Hung-fai in the Hong Kong goal off his right-hand post.
Hong Kong coach Mixu Paatelainen. Photo: HKFA
Even up to that point it was arguable that Hong Kong had been closer to scoring for all of the statistical imbalance. Ha came close after a fine counter-attack from another South Korea corner but a loose backpass from Korean defender Kim Min-jae squirted past his goalkeeper Gu Sung-yun before he recovered just in time.
Hong Kong pose for a photo before the start of the match. Photo: HKFA
Na Sang-ho did add the second that the South Koreans had long threatened for a second half where they had a monopoly on the football but lacked a final touch. That was a header from a corner and it had been coming. Yapp was the busier keeper and had to tip over a header from yet another corner.
They had nearly got the second goal with a header from a second-half corner but Yapp tipped over. Another corner saw Kwon Kyung-won fire wide and one cross saw substitute Lee Jeong-hyeop smash over.
Hong Kong goalie Yapp Hung-fai dives to make a save against South Korea. Photo: HKFA
It was hard to watch for Hong Kong head coach Mixu Paatelainen who spent much of the game on his feet in his technical area – at one point he even went out of it as he expressed his upset at a refereeing decision.
Paatelainen was disappointed with the result, conceding that the two goals conceded were “avoidable”.
“First of all I want to congratulate Korea to win the match,” said the Finn. “We are disappointed, obviously. Not conceding an open play goal, which was good, was our aim. Our aim was also to defend the set plays properly. We didn’t and that cost us. We’re disappointed to lose two goals.”
Hong Kong will get another chance to test their defensive capabilities against Japan on Saturday and then China next Wednesday.
Hong Kong's Helio Goncalves tries to tackle South Korea’s Kim Seung-dae (centre) as goalkeeper Yapp Hung-fai comes off his line. Photo: Reuters
Paatelainen said Hong Kong can expect an even tougher game but was looking forward to the encounter.
It will be another tough one, that’s for sure. We need to be ready. It will be a difficult one because Japan are fantastic. They play excellent fast football, combination play. We need to be on our toes once again.
“We do realise the task in hand and challenge ahead of us. We will prepare as always. Of course, we try and improve from our performance today. That’s our aim. We are a developing team. These are fantastic occasions.”