Despite blowing a late lead to end in a 3-3 draw with Germany in the Rio de Janeiro Olympic men's football competition on Sunday, South Korea can still clinch a quarterfinals berth with a draw against Mexico in the final group match.
Head coach Shin Tae-yong said, however, he won't take anything less than a victory when his team faces Mexico on Wednesday in Brasilia.
"If we try to take a draw (in a tied game), we may end up losing with one minute remaining," he said at a press conference at Fonte Nova Arena in Salvador, 1,600 kilometers north of Rio. "I stressed to our players that we should never try to settle for a draw. And I will prepare them even harder mentally over the next two days."
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Park Hae-mook/The Korea Herald |
South Korea took a 3-2 lead over Germany with Suk Hyun-jun's goal in the 86th minute, and a win would have put them in the quarters. But Serge Gnabry scored the equalizer in added time to foil that bid, and South Korea's fate will be determined in the last Group C match.
South Korea are still in first place with four points. Mexico have four points too after beating Fiji 5-1 Sunday, but they trail South Korea in goal difference, plus-8 to plus-4.
Fiji, easily the weakest team in the group, are unlikely to beat Germany in their Wednesday match. If South Korea and Mexico have a draw and Germany beat Fiji, then South Korea, Mexico and Germany will be tied at five points. In that case, South Korea will likely finish first or at least second thanks to their superior goal difference.
Shin said he doesn't want to go through number crunching when a victory will take care of everything.
"I want to win that finale and reach the quarters comfortably,"
he said. "We'll try to beat Mexico no matter what it takes."
On Sunday's performance, Shin said he was satisfied with his offense, but the defense left much to be desired.
"I don't want to discuss our tactics too much, but we'll have to shore up our defense," he said. "Our attackers can score at will. As long as we don't give up goals, I believe we'll have a good result."
Leading the attack Sunday was Son Heung-min, a Tottenham Hotspur forward who scored the team's second goal Sunday.
Son, who spent nearly eight seasons in Germany, said it was "an honor" to face Germany on a stage as big as the Olympics, though blowing the lead in the final moments dampened his excitement.
"It's really disappointing we couldn't hold on for that final minute," he said. "We played a great match but gave up that late goal. Something like this should never happen again. Obviously, we want to reach the quarters with a victory." (Yonhap)
