Togolese defender Assimiou Toure said a red card for captain Jean-Paul Abalo knocked the stuffing out of the Africans' challenge in their 2-1 loss to South Korea.
Ahn Jung-Hwan bagged the winner for the Koreans in their World Cup Group G opener after Togo had rocked the 2002 semi-finalists by taking the lead with a 31st minute goal from Mohamed Kader before Lee Chun-Soo levelled.
"Things were going well until the red card and we lost our skipper," said 18-year-old Toure, who plays his football at club level with Germany's Bayer Leverkusen and was a German Under-18 international before making his debut for Togo against Saudi Arabia in May.