South Korea beats Costa Rica in friendly

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea's Olympic soccer team crushed its Costa Rican counterpart 4-1 in a friendly match Saturday ahead of its regional qualifiers next month for the 2004 Athens Games.

The Costa Ricans took the lead in the 3rd minute when Alvaro Saborio jumped toward the goal and headed in a floating pass from a teammate.

But South Korea tied the match 17 minutes later and added three goals in the second half, drawing raucous cheers from red-clad home fans filling the stands.

Choi Tae-uk scored the tying goal by swerving past several defenders and firing the ball into the right-hand corner past Costa Rican goalkeeper Nieghel Drummond.

Kim Do-heon scored the second goal in the 57th minute with a low-flying shot into Drummond's right-hand corner. The Costa Rican 'keeper dived in vain to stop the ball.

Second-half substitutes Chun Jae-woon and Jung Jo-kook each added a goal in the 81th and 87th minutes, respectively.

Saturday's match was played at the 43,512-seat Munsu Stadium in Ulsan, 300 kilometers (186 miles) southeast of Seoul.

 

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