South Korean coach Guus Hiddink rued his teamÆs missed chances in its 1-1 tie with the USA June 10.
Guus Hiddink, South Korea coach
On the 1-1 result against the USA: ''I think a draw tastes a little bit less for us because I think we deserved to win. We created beautiful chances. We were unlucky not to have made 100 percent chances. After all, a draw is not enough. But it's a tournament, so we have to stick with that. I am happy with the way the players performed, the attitudes and their performance always going into attack.'' On the next match against Portugal: ''This is a group in which the teams are rather equal. I think it's a big effort from the Korea team. From where they came from three or four months ago, they compete, they control and they dominate every now and then …'' On why he did not smile: ''Yeah, it's curious why I'm not smiling, because when you see the Korean team coming from three or four months of hard work … dominating and good power … but because our national team had five or six open chances and we didn't make that a guaranteed goal. We had five or six open chances and so that's why I was not smiling.'' On comparisons between Poland [which the Koreans beat, 2-0, and the USA: ''We had to beat Poland as we did well against the strong European teams. The American team also had strong strikers and were strong in the air, but I thought we neutralized them very well. The only thing I regret is that we should have had a bit more luck and a little bit more sharpness with our [finishing] our chances.'' On the selection of who would take the penalty kick: ''We have a sequence of penalty kickers and he [Lee Eul Yong] was the second one … and he failed, but that's part of the game. Park Ji Sung would normally take the first, and then he [Lee]. That's part of the game and I fully cover him. What's important also is the many, many chances we had and that's where we failed, in having open chances and not scoring. I also want to give credit to goalie [Brad] Friedel … for making 100 percent saves on 100 percent chances.''
