Lyonnais Goes to Main Rounds First

Olympique Lyonnais of France landed at the final of the 2003 Peace Cup Korea first.

At a final of Group A against Sungnam Ilhwa held Saturday at the Jeonju World Cup Stadium, it beat Sungnam 1-0.

To begin with, Sungnam was ahead of its French opponent. All it had to do was to make a tie. On the other hand, Lyonnais had to beat Sungnam. Thus, Lyonnais waged an all-out attack from the very beginning.

Lyonnais built its attack around the short passes that started from the midfield.

After the 2002 Japan/Korea World Cup, France hired a new coach, and the coach hired a new face, who proved most helpful yesterday. The new guy shook the right defense line of Sungnam and finally shook the net at seven minute.

After taken by surprise, Sungnam tried in vain to breach the defense line of Lyonnais—it was too thick to penetrate. Shasha`s shootings missed the goal posts and Kim Dae-ui was not much help to Sungnam, either.

In Busan Besiktas JK from Turkey and Kaizer Chiefs from South Africa ended the game in a 2-2 draw.

Jong-Koo Yang yjongk@donga.com