Skipper Rim Chang-woo celebrates scoring against Syria at Pakhtakor Stadium, where the Koreans struggled with the unfamiliar pitch according to head coach Lee Kwang-jong.TASHKENT – Korea Republic coach Lee Kwang-jong felt that his team’s lack of familiarity with the pitch at Pakhtakor Stadium helped contributed to their disappointing 1-1 draw with Syria in their final Group B match in the AFC U-16 Championship on Wednesday.
The Koreans, who had played their previous two matches at MHSK Stadium, fell behind to Mohammad Ali’s opener in the 63rd minute but Rim Chang-woo levelled with a header 10 minutes from time.
"We played our previous two matches at MHSK stadium and the players struggled tonight with the new field conditions," said Lee in the post-match press conference.
"The ground conditions didn't help us as the players needed time to adjust and they had a hard time controlling the ball.
"However, at the end things were good and we managed to score the equaliser.
"We played against a tough opponent today and they gave us a hard time. We previously played against weaker teams than Syria and that's why we scored 14 goals in two matches.
"Syria put pressure on us right from the beginning and we were held back by their players before we adjusted our formation from 4-1-4-1 in the first half to 4-4-2 and things improved for us."
Syria coach Kifork Mardakyan, who made five replacements to the team that defeated India, said that the inexperience of the new players in the game had a detrimental effect on his side.
"We had to make several changes as some of our players carried yellow cards while Mahmoud Saleh and Asaad Al Khadr had slight injuries and we preferred to rest them after securing our place in the knockout stage,” he said.
"The experience of the young boys who played tonight was not good and that led to the draw.
"We controlled the majority of the game but the players didn't have enough experience to hold on to the lead.
"We gave them instructions before the game on how to deal with the dangerous free-kicks of the Koreans but they were not successful in the man-to-man marking and that's why Korea levelled the scores from a free-kick."
Source:The AFC.com
