Park feels the pressure

South Korea are victims of their World Cup success

Park Hang-seo, the coach of South Korea's under-23 team, could barely struggled manfully to hold back his tears as he apologized for failing to deliver the much-expected Asian Games gold medal.

His crime, such as it was, in a nation that in its new-found football fever was starting to believe in its own invincibility, was to allow his team to lose in a penalty shoot-out against Iran despite creating most of the chances in a goalless semi-final.

"As the team coach I feel really sorry. I want to apologize to the players for the loss because this meant so much to them," he said, his voice choking with emotion.

"As you can imagine they were determined to win the tournament and, in turn, their disappointment is even greater. I want to apologize for the penalty shoot-out. I was responsible for the order in which our kicks were taken."

South Korea fans didn't have reason to celebrate

Park actually had little to apologise for. In his first job as a head coach - he'd been an assistant with the 1994 and 2002 World Cup teams and with club sides Lucky Goldstar (now Anyang Cheetahs) and Suwon Samsung - he'd improved his team through every match of the tournament and against Iran had cajoled the best performance of the games from a weary group of players.

More relevant than his apologies were Park's warning that the weight of expectation that now accompanies every South Korean team in the wake of their unforgettable run to the World Cup semi-finals is too great a burden for the country's players to bear.

"It needs a change of face, to lessen the pressure, for the future of Korean football," he cautioned.

"There's always too much pressure. I admit that there was a lot of pressure because of finishing fourth in the World Cup. The moment I took the job there was pressure to win. The people wanted to win and so did the players who trusted me and put their faith in me."

"You simply can't compare our team to the World Cup team. They had two years to prepare. We had three weeks!"