S.Korea thrash Hong Kong at E.Asian championship

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TOKYO, Feb 7, 2010 (AFP) - South Korea opened their title defence in style on Sunday, overwhelming hapless Hong Kong 5-0 in the four-nation East Asian football championship on Sunday.

They led the round robin competition with three points, ahead of Japan and China, who drew 0-0 on the opening day Saturday for one point each, and Hong Kong.

"I'm pretty much satisfied with the result," said Korea coach Huh Jung-Moo. "It was a result of what my players did an excellent job. I hope we can play our best in the remaining two games as well."

"I'm happy about so many things, especially Lee Dong-Gook, who scored his first goal in four years. I hope this goal will trigger him to score many more goals in the future, too. We were also good in set-piece play," he added.

South Korea needed only 10 minutes to open the scoring when midfielder Koo Ja-Cheol sent a cross into the area, where Lee Jung-Soo returned it for skipper Kim Jung-Woo's header.

Koo Ja-Cheol made it two up on Kim Bo-Kyung's free kick, beating Hong Kong goalkeeper Zhang Chunhui in the 24th minute, while forward Lee Dong-Gook completed another set piece off a free kick in the 32nd minute.

Only five minutes later, forward Lee Seung-Yeoul received the ball from Oh Jang-Eun and dribbled into the area before firing a lightning shot to make it 4-0 to end the first half.

South Korea continued to dominate after the break, but Hong Kong steadied their defence, giving the Koreans a tougher time.

However, Hong Kong finally collapsed at the last moment when Zhang Chunhui saved a shot off Kim Jae-Sung and substitute forward No Byung-Jun hit the rebound into the net in injury time.

Hong Kong, having qualified for the finals for the first time, managed to strike only four shots on goal with forward Chao Pengfei hitting the best one. South Korea hit a total of 19.

Hong Kong's Korean coach, Kim Pan-Gon, admitted that the Korean team overwhelmed his side with a series of set-piece plays.

"This result is too far from our expectation. We conceded goals by a set piece," said Kim.

"In the last few months, we were improving a lot, we did very well, so we were expecting that we can reduce a goal (against) in this competition and if we can score a goal... that's what we are looking for."

On Wednesday, South Korea play China, while Hong Kong will challenge Japan on Thursday.