Asian Cup - Korea v Saudi Arabia

John Duerden reports from Indonesia as the Saudis and Korea draw in dark Jakarta

There is a mosque situated next to the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in central Jakarta and after the events of Wednesday night, perhaps there were a few Asian Football Confederation officials joining the locals for prayers.

The 1-1 draw between Saudi Arabia and South Korea - their first game of the 2007 Asian Cup - was an interesting one and not least because of the 25-minute power failure that plunged the 90,000 capacity arena into darkness with five minutes remaining.

In Jakarta, the four teams in Group D are all staying at the Marriott Hotel , just a couple of miles away from the stadium. Visions of Saudi Arabian, Korean, Indonesian and Bahraini players all lining up together for the (apparently world-class) breakfast buffet are probably wide of the mark.

While it was the Indonesians who were smiling on Wednesday morning, much attention was already focused on the biggest game in the first round. With five Asian titles between them, Saudi Arabia and South Korea are genuine continental powerhouses, so much so that even BBC World provided a preview of the clash.

South Korean coach Pim Verbeek had obviously decided not to be downhearted about injuries to Premier League stars Park Ji-sung, Lee Young-pyo and Seol Ki-hyeon as well as captain Kim Nam-il. The Dutchman was in bullish mood and talking about winning the trophy.

Stand-in skipper Lee Woon-jae was even more confident. "We will win the Asian Cup," he said. The goalkeeper had obviously forgotten his promise of 13 months earlier when he vowed that he would not concede a goal at the World Cup in Germany – a pledge that lasted less than 30 minutes in Frankfurt.

There's nothing wrong with confidence even though Korea hadn't lifted the bowl-shaped trophy since 1960 and also hadn't defeated Saudi Arabia since 1989. In five meetings since that World Cup qualifier, the Sons of the Desert had won three and drawn two.

Those were no insignificant games. The Saudis dumped the Koreans out of the 2000 Asian Cup at the semi-final stage and then triumphed home and away during qualifying for the 2006 World Cup.

Despite the history, the locals weren't moved. Unlike the previous day, there were no huge lines of people besieging ticket booths around the arena so it wasn't a surprise that the giant Gelora Bung Karno Stadium was not much more than 10% full but it was still disappointing. The Korean fans traveled in reasonable numbers however, making up around two-thirds of those present and almost all of the noise.

The game itself between the two Asian powerhouses was scrappy at times and it is difficult to know if the Reuters report which stated that "the players were wandering around the pitch aimlessly," was referring to the period of darkness or not.

It was better in the second half and not just because both goals came after the break. Choi Sung-kuk got the first. The Seongnam attacker was the smallest player on the pitch but took advantage of some serious ball-watching from Kamil Al Mousa after 66 minutes to head home a fine cross from Yeom Ki-hoon.

Not long after, the impressive Malek Maaz won a, slightly debatable, penalty for the Sons of the Desert by going down under a clumsy challenge from Oh Beom-seok inside the area.

Yasser Al-Qahtani has faced Lee Woon-jae from the spot before on a night known as the "Damman Shock" in Korean football circles. Damman is a city in the east of the Kingdom, known for its hostile atmosphere and passionate fans. In March 2005, the Al-Hilal striker scored a penalty to seal a 2-0 win for the Saudis over Korea in World Cup qualifying.

28 months later and the 24-year-old once again was clinical and sent Lee the wrong way.

Soon after, the lights went out. There were quick shouts of 'Asian betting rings!' in the press box as the lights failed and most of the Saudi contingent disappeared under a haze of smoke as did the Korean reporters.

After what seemed like an age, the lights were restored and play resumed, most of it coming from the Saudis. With the last kick of the game Saad Al Harthi had and wasted the best chance of the whole 115 minutes, shooting into the side-netting with only Lee to beat.

As Pim Verbeek, forced by AFC officials to change his white shirt to blue just after the start of the game, said post-match - "it was the right result."

John Duerden

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