South Korea: Back on top

For those football fans who were tired of watching North Korea and South Korea play to a draw, last night’s game brought back some excitement.

The Red Devils of the South beat their arch-rivals 1-0 at Seoul World Cup Stadium. With the victory, South Korea pulls ahead of the North in Asia’s Group B in World Cup qualifying.

The winning goal came with just three minutes left in the match, made by an athlete building his way up: substitute player Kim Chi-woo who was put in the game just minutes before his score. Kim, a 25-year old who plays for FC Seoul, played for South Korea in the 2004 Summer Olympics and scored a goal in last week’s friendly match versus Iraq.

South Korea’s head coach, Huh Jung-moo, said though the win was a great step, there’s still much more work to be done, according to a story on the Official Home of Asian Football Web site.

“I introduced Kim because I wanted a technically gifted player for when we broke through the DPR Korea defense,” Huh said in the the-afc.com story. “This was a big barrier for us to overcome in our campaign. … We are improving gradually but there is still a long way to go and many points to play for.”

The “long way” Huh refers to is the remaining schedule for the team. June proves to be a huge month, as they travel to Abu Dhabi to play the United Arab Emirates, a team which last week lost 2-0 to North Korea. Later, South Korea plays both Saudi Arabia and Iran at home in Seoul.

As for North Korea, the team is still in position to make it to South Africa next year, as the top two teams in Group B qualify for the World Cup.