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Photo: Stephen Gormley (Red Eye Photo Agency)
Despite the glorious words of their anthem, the strong Uruguayan side produced an ultimatley unfulfilling performance and shared the points with the Korean Republic.
Tottenham Hotspur’s Son Heung-min was declared fit to led the Korean attack Korea in their opening World Cup. The South American side started with Manchester United’s Facundo Pellistri in a three-man front line.
This mouth-watering tie was the latest in a series of clashes between Asia and the western world. Saudi Arabia and Japan had already lowered the colours of Argentina and Germany respectively.
Although a noisy Korean contingent of fans in the 41,000 crowd gave their boys enthusiastic backing, Uruguay defended with a resolution that suggested that these streetfighters were in no mood to let South America down here. Rodrigo Bentancur gave very early notice of his intentions with a series of crisp challenges.
Federico Valverde of Real Madrid almost gave the South Americans the lead with a stunning piece of ball control that could have been a contender for Goal of the Month had he not hooked his clever shot wide. Darwin Nunez could have done better as he failed to connect with a ball across the box. The goal would have reflected the balance of play maybe.
The Koreans continued to take the game to their determined opponents, however. Uijo Hwang tried to usher a shot beyond Sergio Rochet but probably put a little too much spice on the ball as effort curled over from close range. Groans from the noisy Korean as the Forest man who is on loan at Olympiacos came so close.
Luis Suarez tried hard to make Uruguay a goal threat and Diego Godin also saw a header hit the woodwork
Star man Son gave his followers a scare following a clash with Martin Caceres who trod on Son’s heel, taking off one of Son’s boots in the process. That brought a yellow card for Caceres. Son lived to fight another day.
Seeunggyu Kim palmed away a dangerous looking low cross from Nunez to keep the scores level.
We saw the introduction of the classy Edinson Cavani as Uruguay sought to break the deadlock. The former Manchester United star almost turned well enough to fire in a shot but his effort was blocked.
Stout defending and the odd dose of wayward shooting continued to keep the scorecard unoccupied as the game looked capable of ending in any number of outcomes. Both sides sought to push forward but also showed a determination not to let the other in. It was a decent battle of wits at times.
The dangerous Nunez flashed a shot wide, which Cavani narrowly failed to connect with via his head as it whistled past him.
Son failed to capitalise on a poor clearance from Rochet as, like so many shots in this game, his effort flew wide.
Despite the quality of the players on show and the effort of both sides, a lack of composure left a feeling of unfulfillment as the game ended. The Koreans were probably happiest and you sensed with Uruguay, well, don’t write them off just yet.
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