Red-Letter Day for South Korea

Deep into injury time Sunday, after the players from South Korea and Mexico had slogged it out for almost two scoreless hours in the driving rain at the Rose Bowl, Guus Hiddink entered the picture.

South Korea’s Dutch coach, angered by a non-call by Honduran referee Jose Pineda and worried that his own team was asleep, kicked a second ball onto the field while play was in progress and promptly was red-carded.

The move apparently inspired the World Cup co-hosts because they first secured the 0-0 tie in the closing minutes of overtime, then ousted three-time champion Mexico from the CONCACAF Gold Cup, 4-2, on penalty kicks, with goalkeeper Kim Tae-Young making two excellent saves.

The victory, in front of 31,628 on a damp and dismal afternoon, put South Korea into Wednesday’s semifinal against Costa Rica, another World Cup 2002 team.

“I must admit I did it on purpose; it was not emotion,” Hiddink said of his action. “There was a player on the ground injured and the referee wanted to continue with the play.

“I had a ball at my foot and to stop the game I kicked the ball [onto the field]. That’s why I think the ejection is justified.”

South Korea’s victory, even on penalties, was a fair reflection of the game. The South Koreans were more willing to take the game to Mexico, which was lethargic at best after coming close to scoring in the opening minutes.

Hiddink has been worried for some time about his team’s inability to score goals and once again its finishing was appalling. The players worked hard and created a half-dozen clear-cut scoring opportunities only to shoot wide or be thwarted by Mexican goalkeeper Adrian Martinez.

When the two scoreless hours ended, the game went to the penalty-kick phase to determine which team advanced.

Jose Antonio Noriega and Francisco Gabriel De Anda scored for Mexico, with Lee Eul-Young and Lee Dong-Gook doing the same for South Korea.

That’s when Kim came up huge in the South Korean net. First, he saved a shot by Luis Alfonso Sosa and then, after Choi Sung-Yong had scored for South Korea, Kim threw himself to his left and turned a shot by Ignacio Hierro around the post.

Lee Young-Pyo then blasted the ball past Martinez and South Korea was in the semifinals.

Hiddink, of course, will miss the match while serving a suspension because of his red card.

“I don’t have any problem [with that],” he said. “First of all, I have a very, very good assistant coaching staff. Second, it’s sometimes good to see the games from above [in the Rose Bowl suites] to see how the team is doing.”

Mexico Coach Javier Aguirre, who basically brought a third-string team to the 12-nation tournament, partly to assess the depth available to him for the World Cup, shrugged off the loss.

“We did our best and finally we came to penalties,” he said. “We missed and that’s the way it was.”

Mexico has a history of losing games on penalty kicks and Aguirre was asked if the team was haunted by this.

“The ghost is still there,” he said.

Aguirre said the Gold Cup had provided the opportunity to check new young players and in this, at least, it had been useful.

“I tried some new players and I’m pleased,” he said. “I expect a very good future for them.”