South Korea vs Bahrain Report

South Korea overcame Bahrain 2-1 in their opening game in Group C of the Asian Cup as Koo Ja-Cheol hit a brace to see off a late fightback in Doha.

Koo scored either side of the break to give the Taegeuk Warriors a commanding lead, but a late penalty from Faouzi Aaish after Kwak Tae-Hwi had been sent off left the Koreans hanging on at the end.
Bahrain suffered an early blow when they lost defender Husain Baba  to a hamstring pull in the first 10 minutes. It was immediately obvious that he’d be unable to carry on and before long he was replaced by Hamad Rakea.
With few real chances at either end in the early stages, there was a mini-flashpoint in the 23rd minute when Abdullah Omar went feet first into a heading duel with Park Ji-Sung. Naturally the Koreans didn’t take kindly to the challenge, and within a minute Bahrain were almost made to pay, but Koo Ja-Cheol’s low shot was pushed wide by Mahmood Mansoor.
Bahrain had a shot on target late in the half when Mahmood Abdulrahman attempted to catch out Jung Sung-Ryong with a direct strike from a 45-yard free-kick, but it didn’t get the kick he desired and was all too easy for the keeper to smother.
With the Taegeuk Warriors knocking on the door more and more though, it seemed only a matter of time before they took the lead, and after Park Ji-Sung headed wide when free in front of goal, his side quickly grabbed the go-ahead goal.
Connecting onto a ball straight through the middle of the Al-Ahmar back line, Koo Ja-Cheol turned well and shot low, but his effort took a wicked deflection off Abdulla Al Marzooqi and looped over Mansoor and into the net. Though the lead was deserved, the nature of the goal was cruel in the least.

Koo very nearly doubled the lead on the stroke of half-time, but his long range striker just cleared the bar after beating Mansoor all ends up. But it took him until only six minutes into the second half to grab his second. When Cha Du-Ri sent a storming 25 yard shot in, Mansoor could only parry into the path of Koo Ja-Cheol, who completed the simplest of tasks in tapping in.
Korea continued to have the best of the ball, though Jaycee John had a good chance to bring Bahrain back into it 13 minutes left to play, but he couldn’t hit the target with his header from a right-wing corner. However, Al-Ahmar got a foot back into the game when Kwak Tae-Hwi pulled back Abdulla Al Dakeel on the edge of the box and the referee awarded a spot-kick and brandished a red card for the defender.
Faouzi Aaish stepped up to sidefoot home the penalty to halve the gap with five and a half minutes still to play to give the underdogs a real boost. From there South Korea were left to hang on, but they did just enough to earn the three points ahead of their clash with Australia. Next up for Bahrain is a clash with India, with both teams looking to get off the mark.