Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Nay Pyi Taw: Kim Gun-hee notched a brace as defending champions Korea Republic ran rampant in their AFC U-19 Championship opener with a comprehensive 6-0 win over Vietnam in the Group C clash at Wunna Theikdi Stadium on Thursday.
Although the scoring didn't begin until the final minute of the first half when Lee Jeong-bin gave his side the lead, Kim Gun-hee soon notched his first after the interval on 54 minutes before Shim Jeh-yeok and then Hwang Hee-chan added to the tally in a ten minute deluge.
Paik Seung-ho then netted the pick of the goals on the 76th minute with a strike from distance before Kim Gun-hee claimed his second in stoppage time to send out a stark warning to the rest of the competition.
"We struggled with the hot weather in the first half, that is why it took us a little time to get into our stride," said coach Kim Sang-ho, whose charges next face China on Saturday.
"But once we got into our flow in the second half we played a lot more like I know we can and I think Vietnam got very tired."
Cheered on by a vocal group of Vietnam fans complete with drums and flags, the Southeast Asians got off to a bright start with Nguyen Van Long getting the first shot on target after five minutes with a solid long-range effort that goalkeeper Lee Tae-hui held well.
Korea began to take control of the game, though, as Kim Chang-yeong headed just wide on 20 minutes following custodian Le Van Truong's failed attempt to deal with Lee Jeong-bin's corner.
Vietnam gave as good as they got, however, and they went close to taking the lead with six minutes of the half remaining as a firm header from Bui Tien Dung almost looped under the bar but for a back-tracking Lee Tae-hui, who belatedly clawed the ball away.
Although the scores tied at half-time would have been fair, with a minute remaining to the interval it was the defending champions who had the breakthrough.
Full-back Park Jae-woo's ball into the penalty area from the right eventually fell at the feet of the lurking Lee Jeong-bin who bundled home at the second attempt, after Le Van Truong failed to properly deal with his initial close-range effort.
And Korea needed only nine minutes of the second period to extend their lead as Vietnam once again failed to deal with a dangerous ball from Park and Kim Gun-hee was left unmarked and with plenty of time to pick his spot in the bottom right-hand corner.
And on the hour-mark it was 3-0 as Vietnam's vulnerable left-flank was again breached, this time by Suh Myeong-won who chipped in an inviting cross from the right that first-half substitute Shim met with a thunderous header into the roof of the net.
The one-way traffic continued as Shim was upended inside the penalty area just four minutes later by Van Truong with substitute Hwang's first duty upon coming on to the pitch being the resultant penalty, which he took with cool composure, sending the Vietnam goalkeeper the wrong way.
Fellow second-half replacement Paik was in similarly clinical mood and with 14 minutes remaining the midfielder unleashed a venomous shot from 20-yards out that fizzed into the bottom right-hand corner to take the lead to five.
And it was Kim Gun-hee who had the final say of the game after rounding Van Truong to complete his brace in stoppage time to cap off a thoroughly impressive second-half performance from the defending champions.
"In the first half we tried to match Korea Republic and we played quite well but in the second half it was like there was a bomb inside my team, we just fell apart," said Vietnam coach Guillaume Graechen, who must now galvanise his side to face another East Asian giant in Japan on Saturday.