Korea book Athens berth

AFC - Korea Republic booked their place at the Athens Olympics in August, the win against China this evening (Saturday) giving Kim Ho-Kon's side an unassailable six-point advantage over nearest rivals Iran with one game of the Asian Football Qualifiers remaining.

Goals either side of half-time from Cho Jae-jin and Kim Dong-Jin took the visitors to their fifth straight win in the group, ensuring the team's participation in their fifth successive, and seventh in total, Olympic games.

For China, who were out of the running for a place at the Olympics after garnering just four points from the four qualifiers before tonight's game, the result extends their sorry record of never having beaten Korea at this level.

With Iran rattling in six goals against Malaysia on Friday night to keep up their slim hopes of qualifying, Korea came out of the blocks determined to secure the place at Athens with a game to spare and dominated proceedings in front of a lively capacity crowd who were not put off by the dank conditions in this south China city.

Korea's slick passing and movement gave the home side plenty to think about in the opening exchanges and it was clear that, despite only needing a point from the game to ensure the group winners' berth to Athens, they were intent on securing a win.

With Park Kyu-seon and Kim Jong-din breaking with pace down the flanks, China, missing defensive stalwart Du Wei, were on the back foot for most of the opening 20 minutes.

Cho set the alarm bells ringing for the home side after just five minutes, the lanky striker's header over the bar at the far post the first opening of the game.

Six minutes later, Park Ji-sung, the PSV Eindhoven player, twisted and turned his way past a couple of China players before firing low and hard at An Qi in the China goal. 

And 10 minutes later An was forced into another save from a long-range effort from Cho. The ball slipped from the keeper's grasp but was hacked clear as Choi Sung-kuk bore down on the loose ball. 

After weathering the storm of the first 25 minutes, China began to play with more compusure in attack and set about closing down the Korea players with much more purpose.

Forcing the Korea midfielders into mistakes, Shen Xiangfu's team began to come back into the game but genuine chances were few are far between. In fact, the home side's best effort of the half was from a corner after 36 minutes when Yan Song got in front of his marker at the near post but his header was fractionally wide.

In added time of the first half, Korea opened the scoring, Cho stealing in front of his marker to meet Kim's flighted crosss from the left with a firm header across An and into the righ-hand corner of the China goal. It was a well-placed header but China's marking left a lot to be desired.

Korea killed the game off just three minutes after the restart. Choi-Sung-kuk, who caused China problems all night with his ability to pick the ball up from deep and run at defenders, curled a ball in from the right to the far post to find Cho Byung-kuk. His cushioned header fell into the path of Kim who lashed home with a fierce volley from 10 yards out.

Finding themselves two goals adrift, China played with much more purpose and enjoyed the majority of the possession in the second half. However, they lacked someone to unlock the Korea defence and, try as they did, Korea never looked they conceding a goal, let alone allowing China back into the contest.

Korea play Iran on May 12 in Seoul in what is sure to be a part atmosophere. Sterner tests await in Athens.