Almost two days into the World Cup finals and I’ll admit had you asked me which team I would have been most impressed with so far, probably South Korea would not have been my first answer.
How different I feel now after their stylish 2-0 win over Greece to kick off World Cup Group B Betting as the fairly recent European champions were cast aside and, basically, made to look very inferior.
South Korea, since their co-hosting of the tournament back in 2002, have grown up as a football nation (with Group A Betting 2010 World cup) pundits hoping South Africa will do the same after this tournament) and it is obvious how much they have improved in terms of technique and stamina now they have players plying their trade at the likes of Manchester United, Celtic and Monaco.
They dominated a supposed attacking Greece line-up from the opening whistle and it would not have been unfair on them had they gone down to defeat by double the eventual margin.
Greece managed just two attempts on target during the whole 90 minutes and had Park Chu-Young shown more composure Korea could have been looking at the kind of win that would have really helped their goal difference as they head into two tougher challenges against Nigeria and Argentina.
Greece created the first chance of the game, but five minutes after that early Vasillos Torosidis effort, South Korea were in front for good as Lee Jung-Soo made the most of some shocking marking to volley home.
Another would follow seven minutes into the second half, although by then South Korea should have been out of sight, when United wideman Park Ji-Sung stole the ball off a sleeping Loukas Vnytra and fired past Alexandros Tsorvas.
It took Greece 81 minutes to even force a decent save out Jung Sung-Ryong but Theo Gekas’ shot was not the one to become the first goal the Greeks have ever scored at a World Cup finals tournament.
So South Korea probably take the advantage in what should have been a tight four-team race, with one more win enough to send them through to the second round and start them dreaming of a repeat of 2002’s run to the last-four. On this evidence, although the opposition was lacking, they might go further than many had expected.