Korean youth soccer team loses

Following a shocking blow to Korean pride by the lackluster performance of the Korean National Soccer Team at the Asian Cup, the Korean Youth Soccer Team also turned in an unexpected poor performance at the Asian Youth Cup and failed to make it past the preliminaries.

The Korea Youth Soccer Team held the final game of the B-group against Iraq at the Sirudi Stadium in Tehran during the 32nd Asian Youth Cup (below 19 years of age) on Nov. 27.

With the previous 3-1 victory by China over the United Arab Emirates, China rose to the top of the B-group, dropping Korea to third. As such, Korea needed the victory against Iraq to make it to the semifinal game.

The Korean team pledging to reclaim the glorious victory as it had in 1998, and stepped onto the field to face Iraq. However, showing a marked lack of teamwork and fighting spirit, the Korean team failed to obtain a goal and the game ended with a scoreless tie.

The overall game result for Korea was 2 wins, 1 loss and 1 tie, giving Korea 7 victory points, a third finish after China (10) and Iraq (8). Korea failed in its bid to play in the semifinals for the first time since 1994.

As for the A-group finish on the previous day, the home team, Iran played a Japanese team consisting mostly of second-string players and took first place beating Japan with the score of 3-1. The two teams will play in the semifinal. The semifinal games will begin Nov. 24 with the Iran-Iraq and the China-Japan matchups.

Bae Keuk-In bae2150@donga.com