by John Greece

Created on: July 01, 2010   Last Updated: July 03, 2010

The following article refers to the football match between Greece and Korea, held in Nelson Mandela Bay / Port Elizabeth - Port Elizabeth Stadium of South Africa in the frames of first match of the second group of the 18th World Cup. The bad tradition that created and wants Greece not to win and not to score at World Cup Finals continued in the football stadiums of South Africa. For the record, this game was won by the Korean team by a score of 2-0. The goals of the winners achieved by Lee at the 7th and Park at 52th minute. Referee of the reckoning was Michael Hesterr from New Zealand.

The match between Greece and Korea was difficult for both teams before even start. It was a game with two teams of the same capacity and their goal was the best possible start to the current event. It was the first game in the group phase and both teams should play as best as they could in order to reach the victory.Premier victories give to teams the advantage of three points for the winner and zero for the loser. So, a draw was a bad result for both teams.

Greece's reputation is derived from negative results in the last friendly games that gave a few days before the start of the first race. Such results created a climate of doubt about the course of the team in the current World Cup at South Africa. On the other hand, Koreans armed with their very good physical condition and knowing the weaknesses of their opponents were less anxious. An element that seemed to play an important role during the match.

From the first minutes of the match showed that the Greeks couldn't overcome the many difficulties that they met as they were unable to put the ball down and create their own game. Usually exchanged passes on defense and barely passed the ball to the strikers. Thus, the creation of dangerous phases in the opponents side that probably bring a goal was hard to achieve. The lack of dynamism resulted to unawares Greek players from their rivals.

The Koreans had the fortunate to score a quick and relatively easy goal just in the seventh minute of the game. So, they kicked up and released by the anxious that might had until this point of the match by playing their own game in the way that they want and loaded their opponents with even more problems.

This was something that took the Greeks even more out of the game and now with even more stress searched for the goal of the draw before the end of the first half which never came. Instead, the Koreans were the ones who threatened more and in a couple of cases if they were a bit lucky they might have achieved one goal more.

In the second half we all waited to see a better game from both teams, mainly from Greece, which was behind the score. However, for one more time in the same game, the Greeks went unprepared to the pitch and received again a quick goal. This was the second time and resulted in a doubling of the requirements of the game. Now, Greeks should achieve two goals in the next 38 minutes.

The Greeks were limited offensively, and their morale had fallen considerably. The Koreans had the good spirit on their side. But the Greeks continue to try and to look for suitable paths for the creation of dangerous moments in the opposing defense. But in any case they couldn't really threaten the Korean defense and give a new twist in the match.

The final score came inevitably to add to the list of negative results. Greece for the fourth consecutive game (in world cup finals) cannot get neither victory, nor draw, nor to succeed a goal and undoubtedly the victory of Korea was utterly fair.

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