Australia and South Korea shared the spoils 1-1 in the battle of the big guns at the Asian Cup on Friday as both sides inched closer to the quarter-finals. The two Asian heavyweights are both seen as potential champions but neither could find the winner at the three-quarters full Al-Gharafa Stadium.
Exciting 21-year-old Koo Ja-Cheol, who has attracted interest from overseas clubs, got the breakthrough for the Koreans on 24 minutes, striking his third goal of the competition. But a second-half equaliser from Mile Jedinak ensured a draw, leaving both teams on four points from two games. The Koreans are best-placed to make the last eight with only minnows India standing in their way while the Socceroos face a tricky encounter with Bahrain on Tuesday. Socceroos coach Holger Osieck said it was a quality game and he was happy with the result.
"I think we have seen a very high standard from both teams who have great potential. They displayed it time and again. At times it was end-to-end stuff," said the German. "My team, I'm very happy with their performance. Our game plan was to close them down in midfield and that was mostly achieved. In contrast, his Korean counterpart Cho Kwang-Rae considered it two points lost.
"We could have won the game. If you look at the general performance of our team, then we should have won," he said. Manchester United's Park Ji-Sung had the first sight of goal on two minutes after intercepting a poor pass from Lucas Neill, but scuffed his shot and Fulham's Mark Schwarzer collected comfortably.