A new coach at the helm but still the same old result as the UAE's World Cup hopes are all but dashed after losing 4-1 to South Korea. South Korea, led by the industrious Manchester United midfielder Park Ji-Sung, controlled the game from start to finish and won thanks to a Lee Keun-Ho double and a goal each from Park and Kwak Tae Hwi to mark Dominique Bathenay's first game in charge with a heavy loss. Ismail Salem gave the UAE a glimmer of hope as he made a fool of the Korean defender Cho Yong-Hyung to make it 2-1 midway through the second half, but it resulted in nothing more than a blip on an otherwise spotless performance from the hosts.
The result is the third consecutive loss in Asian World Cup qualifying Group Two for the UAE, which all but ends their hopes of making it to the finals in South Africa in 2010. Park, captain for the game, gave the visitors a taste of things to come after only 10 minutes as he fired just wide with a lashing left foot strike after a poor header out from the defender Faris Jumaa. Two minutes later Kim Dong-Jin inexplicably put his header from five-yards out wide after the visiting defence went to sleep at an inswinging free-kick from danger man Park.
Lee Keun-Ho, who was starting to find space at will in the UAE defence, found himself with a chance to open the scoring 15 minutes into the game but his tame right foot shot was easily saved by the Al Wahda goalkeeper Majed Nasser. However, he would get the chance to atone for that miss four minutes later. The striker collected a pass from Lee Chung-Yong, who was given the freedom of the Seoul World Cup Stadium pitch, and scored from an almost identical position with the aid of a deflection off of the unfortunate UAE captain Saeed.
Saeed's luck and composure continued to desert him for the Koreans second goal. He failed to deal with a tame centre from the rightback Lee Young-Pyo and the ball fell invitingly for the Manchester United star Park to rifle the ball inside Nasser's near post to double the hosts lead with 25 minutes on the clock. The hosts continued to lay siege to the UAE goal with the Al Wasl goalkeeper Nasser again called into action to thwart Lee Keun-Ho from scoring his second and Jumaa and Mohamed Fayez both making telling last ditch tackles.
It took Bathenay's men until the 40th minute to register a chance worth noting, but Yousef Jaber's left-foot shot from distance merely provided Jung Sung-Ryong in the Korean goal a chance to test out the grip on his gloves. You could count on one hand the number of times Mohamed Al Shehhi and Ismail Matar touched the ball in the first half and the second continued in much the same vein as the Koreans continued to stretch a tired looking UAE side.
Lee Keun-Ho continued to be a menace down the right while Kim Dong-Jin hit the cross bar with a looping effort. The UAE captain Saeed was lucky not to see a straight red card on 52 minutes for a crude, studs-first challenge on the playmaker Choi Sung-Kuk. The challenge signalled the end of Choi's match, who was left in a crumpled heap, and replaced by Kim Jung-Woo. On the hour-mark Jung-Woo announced his arrival to the action by forcing Nasser into a fine save with a curling 20-yard free-kick. Al Shehhi cleared Kim Dong-Jin's goal-bound header off the line as South Korea continued to threaten the visitors' goal.
The Al Ain forward Al Shehhi was proving more effective at the back than he was in attack as a rare glimpse at goal resulted in him worrying the corner flag instead of the goalkeeper. Then, on 68 minutes, Ismail Salem threw the UAE's World Cup hopes a lifeline. The Korean defender Cho Yong-Hyung inexplicably chose to take on the onrushing forward on the edge of his own penalty box instead of clearing his lines and Salem the opportunist wrestled the ball from him and was left one-on-one with Sung-Ryong, who he teased with a dummy before stroking the ball home to make it 2-1.
With Bathenay sensing his charges were through the worst of the storm he brought on the Al Jazira midfielder Ahmed Mohamed for the defender Yousef Jaber, but sadly, the South Korean weather report predicted more showers. Park, instrumental in most of his side's attacking play, picked out Lee Keun-Ho's run on the angle and the striker shot across the face of Nasser's goal and watched as the ball nestled comfortably in the bottom right-hand corner to restore the home team's two-goal cushion and gift him his second goal of the match.
Tae Hwi completed the rout by heading in Kim Jung-Woo's deep corner at the back post with Nasser in the UAE goal badly at fault. The result leaves the UAE with no points from three Group Two games and next to no chance of boarding a plane to South Africa in 2010.
sluckings@thenational.ae
