(Asiad) S. Korean football coach rues 2nd-place finish in group round at Asian Games

FUKUROI, Japan, Sept. 21 (Yonhap) -- The head coach of the South Korean women's football team on Monday expressed slight disappointment at failing to win the top seed in the group stage after drawing with North Korea in the final preliminary-round match at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games

South Korea tied at 1-1 with North Korea in the final Group F preliminary-round match at Shizuoka Stadium Ecopa in Fukuroi, some 104 kilometers east of the main host city Nagoya.

With two wins and one draw apiece, North Korea topped Group F with a plus-18 goal difference, while South Korea finished second with a plus-11 goal difference.

"Our goal at this Asian Games is to change the color of our medal. For that goal, finishing first was important," head coach Shin Sang-woo said during an official press conference, referring to South Korea's three bronze medals at the Asian Games.

"But we finished second not because we played poorly, but because more luck seemed to be on North Korea's side," he said. "It is a bit disappointing, but we will rest well and prepare well for the next match."

South Korea will face Uzbekistan, the runner-up in Group G behind China, in the quarterfinals in Osaka on Friday.

Had South Korea finished first in Group F, it would have faced a runner-up or a third-place team of other groups at the same venue.

At the Asian Games, 12 teams are divided into three groups, with the top two teams from each group and the two best-performing third-place teams advancing to the quarterfinals.

Monday's match drew media attention as an all-Korean matchup at the Asian Games, which began its 16 day-run on Saturday.

However, Shin stressed that his coaches and players did not attach greater significance to facing North Korea in the final preliminary-round match than to playing against other countries.

"There was no special motivation for playing against the North. They are just our opponent to play against," he said. "Football is just football, and we just get results through the process. We don't mind political things."

Instead, he challenged his players to do their best and overcome their limitations against North Korea, one of the powerhouses of women's football in Asia and a three-time Asian Games gold medalist.

South Korea's head-to-head record against North Korea now stands at one win, 16 losses and five draws. Its only victory came in August 2005.

"North Korea is powerful, and our players stayed focused and played well. I wanted to say thank you to them," he said.