KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (Reuters) — Iraq reached their first Asian Cup final on Wednesday night, beating South Korea 4-3 on penalties after an action-packed semi-final had ended goalless after extra time.
Jasim Al Hamd runs away in triumph as the Iraq team celebrate their penalty shootout triumph.
Noor Sabri Abbas was Iraq’s hero when he saved Korea’s fourth effort from Yeom Ki-hun.
After Ahmed Menajed had made it 4-3 to the West Asians, Korean Kim Jung-woo hit the post to send the Iraqi players into ecstasy.
“It was a great game,” said Iraq coach Jorvan Vieira. “The game was 50:50 but we missed more opportunities than them. We were tired too, but Korea were more tired than us.”
It was Korea’s second penalty shootout in four days, having overcome Iran 4-2 in Sunday’s quarterfinal after another goalless 120 minutes.
“We are all very, very disappointed,” Korea coach Pim Verbeek said. “In the first half we forgot to play football and use the spaces. Second half we played much better but we were not sharp in the final third and sometimes not lucky. I knew extra time would be tough for us after Sunday.”
Iraq will now meet Saudi Arabia in Sunday’s final in Jakarta.
Saudi Arabia ended Japan’s bid for a third straight Asian Cup title — Malek Maaz scoring twice in a 3-2 win.
Maaz sent his nation into their sixth final in the last seven tournaments with a superb solo goal, wriggling past three Japan defenders before smashing the ball into the top corner.
“We’re delighted,” Saudi Arabia coach Helio Cesar dos Anjos told reporters. “To beat the best team in Asia means so much. It was the best game of the Asian Cup.
“Tonight was a huge victory for Arab football,” said Brazilian Anjos. “I hope it will bring peace and happiness to the people of Iraq and also in Saudi Arabia.”
The Saudis had never previously beaten Japan at the Asian Cup, including defeats in the 1992 and 2000 finals, but they were the sharper team throughout in Hanoi.
Saudi captain Yasser Al Qahtani had volleyed his side in front in the 35th minute but Japan took just two minutes to pull level through defender Yuji Nakazawa’s towering header.
Maaz restored Saudi Arabia’s lead with a bullet header two minutes into the second half only for Yuki Abe to equalise again for Japan with an acrobatic volley in the 53rd minute.
“We let them off the hook,” shrugged Japan’s Bosnian coach Ivica Osim. “We had more chances but couldn’t take them. They had three and scored them all.
“We looked tired and we ran out of ideas. One or two of our key players simply didn’t play well enough.”
Japan, who had beaten Australia in a penalty shootout in the quarterfinals, take on South Korea in the third-place play-off in Palembang, Indonesia on Saturday.
The Iraqis went into Wednesday’s match in confident mood having topped qualifying Group A in which they beat a fancied Australia.
Korea, who last won the Asian Cup in 1960, were runners-up in Group D behind Saudi Arabia, but had shown great resilience in overcoming Iran in the quarters.
Verbeek’s team produced their performance of the tournament against Iraq, but again their three-man attack failed to produce a goal for the second straight match.
Showing brilliant individual skills, Iraq dominated the first half but 2002 World Cup semifinalists Korea hit back strongly after the break, though they wasted several chances to knock Iraq out of their stride.
Despite weary legs tiring further on a sodden pitch, both sides continued to work hard in extra time and their willingness to attack resulted in tense goalmouth action at both ends.
Iraq had a great chance to snatch it in the 104th minute when Hawar Mulla Mohammed found himself in front of an open goal but his shot crashed against the inside of Lee Woon-jae’s right-hand post before being cleared.
Nine minutes later, Mulla whipped in a volley from a narrow angle across Lee’s goal but nobody was there to apply the killer touch and, after 120 minutes of attacking football had failed to produce a goal, the teams were ushered to the penalty spot for the shootout.
It was 3-3 when Noor dived to his left to save from Yeom.
The pressure was then on Kim after Menajed had scored for Iran, but the Nagoya Grampus Eight midfielder slammed his shot against the post to hand victory to a jubilant Iraq. E-mail to a friend
Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Source link : http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=66b0b5ac94244b6da8e474b61a17e059&url=https%3A%2F%2Fedition.cnn.com%2F2007%2FSPORT%2Ffootball%2F07%2F25%2Fasia.iraq.reut%2Findex.html&c=6126564660517646710&mkt=en-us
Author :
Publish date : 2007-07-25 01:00:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.