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Karl
Senior Member
USA
914 Posts |
 Posted - Jan 27 2002 : 09:41:02 AM
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QUARTERFINAL: Mexico-Korea resembles World Cup match
26.01.02 - Mexico technical director Javier Aguirre said that Sunday’s FC Gold Cup 2002 quarterfinal match against Korea is going to have the feel of a match which could be played six months in the future.
“(Korea) is a difficult team, organized, very fast, who have their complete roster. This game will have the flavor of a World Cup match,” Aguirre said.
Aguirre said that a number of the players on his Gold Cup team have made good claims on spots on his World Cup roster, and that the time for experimentation is over, the concentration now on winning the tournament. But they will have a large task ahead of them.
“We have to play quickly and well, because the Koreans will press us and if we hold onto the ball we’re going to suffer. We have to move because only that way are we going to have the chance to turn things our way,” Aguirre said.
“We aren’t as fast as they are but we have better skills and on a good field the ball will do the work for us. There have to one or two touches back and then the creative zone will free space for us. Movement is very important, as is immediate back-tracking.”
Guus Hiddink, Korea technical director, said he is pleased his team has advanced to this stage even though they have yet to play their best.
“Korea has not played well in this Gold Cup. We had bad luck in our match against the USA and we were matched up with a team like Cuba that defended very well and made us work hard to advance to the next round.”
Nevertheless, the experienced coach knows a much better effort will be needed to make it beyond Sunday.
“Mexico are a very hard and complicated team. They have been saying that Korea have the speed, but Mexico is a speedy team, with ball-handling skills that can at any moment put scoring chances together,” he said.
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