Scotland snatches TT draw against S/Korea
SEOUL: Jason Scotland was the hero for Trinidad and Tobago when he scored an equaliser in the final 15 minutes to help the twin-island republic to a 1-1 draw with 2002 World Cup semi-finalists South Korea in an international football friendly yesterday. After South Korea took a 1-0 lead early in the second half through a goal from Cha Du-ri, Scotland netted a perfectly executed bullet into the top left corner in the 77th minute to top a performance of sheer determination from TT in a crowd of 27,000 vocal South Korean fans at the Seoul World Cup Stadium. The result was a timely boost of morale for the TT footballers ahead of the semi-finals of CONCACAF qualification for the FIFA World Cup Germany 2006, starting next month. TT have been drawn in Group “C” with Mexico, CONCACAF’s top-ranked football nation, as well as fellow Caribbean Football Union top-10 sides, St Kitts/Nevis and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
“I think it was a great effort from the guys and it bridges the gap between some of the overseas pros and some of the local players,” TT head coach Bertille St Clair said after the match. “I never thought about this result, but I thought about the exercise. We wanted this kind of match for the experience. In cases like these you aspire to achieve and this is what the guys did,” he said. “What I wanted was that kind of fighting performance from the guys because we have been speaking about it. We took it like a boxer going through a battle round-by-round. Nothing comes easily and practice makes permanent. When you do things over and over it automatically comes easy,” St Clair said.
The end result seemed a far way off, but TT captain Angus Eve and his men demonstrated strong character and fight to hold off the fleet-footed Koreans, whose side included half-dozen members of their World Cup squad. Kim Tae-young celebrated his 100th match when made a rare foray forward and played in a pass for Cha Du-ri, who poked the ball through the legs of Jack to give the Koreans the lead. Sloppy defending allowed TT to make their comeback. Scott Sealy battled a pair of South Korean defenders near the top of the box, the ball slipped back into the path of the unmarked Scotland, who rifled a cracker past Lee Woon-jae.
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"Scotland snatches TT draw against S/Korea"