If you were to judge the chances of UAE in this game from their singing of the national anthem, you wouldn’t have given them much chance. A lackluster performance, devoid of any spirit…luckily they were much better on the pitch. If only someone had told them you don’t have to score from 25 yards.
Korea DPR started as slight favourites basically due to the fact they were in the World Cup in South Africa. And they wouldn’t have prayed for a better start, a floated ball over the top was flicked back by Captain Hong Yong-Jo into the path of VfL Bochum striker Jong Tae-Se. A blatant push in Jong’s back by Hamdan Al Kamali and the referee had no choice but to point to the spot.
The Captain was given the penalty responsibilities over star-striker Jong. He looked calm enough waiting for the signal to take the kick, he went for placement over power and could only watch as his penalty collided with the crossbar and flew out for a goal-kick.
Korea then tried to find Jong with a number of deep crosses from the left; the striker did very well to win the ball on a few occasions but with the UAE defence aware of his threat they combined well to snuff out the danger.
UAE then went on the attack and Korean goalkeeper Ri Myong-Guk had to be at his best. Subait Khater played in a free-kick from deep, Ri’s punch clear wasn’t convincing the ball fell at the feet of Ismail Al Hammadi but Ri recovered very well to make an instinct save with his feet.
Ri was under pressure again minutes later when Cha Jong-Hyok tried to clear the ball but ended up slicing the clearance towards Ismail Mater again Ri had to react quickly to block the midfielders shot.
Subait Khater was showing the danger he possessed from set-pieces, he drilled in a free-kick from 40 yards out Hamdan Al Kamali managed to get underneath the ball and flick the header goal wards, the Koreans could only watch on as it flashed over the bar.
The UAE were in the ascendancy Al Hammadi played a great pass round the central defender and released Ahmad Khalil he then cut back onto his right foot and tried his luck with a curled effort looking for the far corner, a good effort but it curled just past the post.
Creating some great chances by playing some excellent passes from deep Amer Abdulrahman created the next opening with a ball chipped over the top of the Korea defence, not realising he had time and space Ismail Matar tried a difficult first time volley and skied his effort over the bar.
After being on the front foot for the best part of half an hour it’s no surprise they had the last chance of the half. Khater’s free-kick was played to the back post, knocked down by Walid Abbas, Yousef Jaber should have done a lot better to keep his shot on target.
Although they had a great start Korea DPR very lucky to go into the interval with the scores level. The UAE will worry if the missed chances will come back to haunt them.
Korea DPR made a change early in the second half, bringing off Captain Hong Yong-Jo for Chol Hyok-An, it didn’t make any difference the UAE remained the dominant team throughout the second half.
The first chance fell to their Captain Subait Khater with his ferocious left foot he unleashed a bomb towards the Korea goal, luckily for Ri it flew safely over the bar, an early reminder of the power Khater possesses.
Ismail Mater was the next in line for a pop at the Korea goal, capitalising on a defensive mistake he tried his luck from 25 yards the ball wickedly swerving just past the post. Quite obvious that he fancies himself from long range his next effort however showed he has a lot of practice in front of him. The shot was full of power but lacked any direction.
Overall the UAE had too many shots from long range. When they did get the ball in the box with only two minutes left Ri had to be at his best. Khater swung in the right footed cross, substitute Saeed Al Kathiri rose in between two defenders got his header on target but Ri was at his best again to turn the header past the post.
Not the worst 0-0 in the history of football but a very disappointing performance from Korea DPR, no shots on target and only five to speak of in the whole match. UAE will rue the amount of chances they had. Maybe if they tried to work the ball closer to the goal they might have more luck.
Afterwards UAE striker Ismail Matar thought his team had the chance to win the match.
“We played a good match tonight although in the first 10 minutes, we got lucky when DPR Korea missed their penalty,”
“But we came back strongly into the game and I thought that we did well. But we missed too many chances and they also have a good goalkeeper who played very well.
“But we tried our best and although the draw may not have been a fair result for us, I think that getting a point is a good start for us. We still have a good opportunity to qualify for the next round but we
have to assert ourselves and try to be more confident in ourselves when we play our next game against Iraq because this is football and anything can happen.“We have to fight, we have to give our best on the field and I think we can win our games.”
Korea DPR coach Jo tong-Sop didn’t think much to his team’s performance.
“We had a chance with the penalty in the first-half but after the failure of the penalty, the players did not play well.
“In the second-half, we tried not to concede a goal and score on the counter-attack but still the players did not play well. So generally, I could say our play was not so good. It was not as we had expected.
“Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose but generally, we try not to concede a goal so we emphasise defence and in this way we organised the game.
“We try to win the match but we have experience from this game and we can take this into the next two.
“Those two teams (Iran and Iraq) will be very difficult to play against but we know their weaknesses and we will try to use that to get the points that we will qualify.”
Both sides will need to try and win their next match if they want to progress in the tournament, Korea DPR take in Iran and the UAE will face Iraq. It’s all the play for in Group D.
