This was both England and South Korea's penultimate match before the World Cup 2002 starts and so both teams wanted to put in good performances to give them confidence. England were the better team in the first half and went 1-0 up but South Korea were the better team in the second half and scored to take the final score to 1-1.

Kieron Dyer, Nicky Butt and David Beckham were in the squad but injured and David Seaman was rested - every other England squad member took part in the game. Emile Heskey started the game on the left but in an attacking role, effectively joining Michael Owen and Darius Vassell as the third striker.

England started the game with promise and had the better of the early exchanges.  After quarter of an hour, Owen Hargreaves threaded through an excellent pass to Michael Owen - although he had a tight angle he only had the goalkeeper to beat - his attempted chip over the goalkeeper went across the face of the goal and Darius Vassell slid in but his shot was cleared off the line. Danny Murphy then had a volley from the outside the penalty box but put in just wide.
 

        
Scholes shoots and the ball comes off the goalkeeper                                 Michael Owen celebrates his goal
 to Owen (right hand side of this picture) to score     

After 26 minutes, Michael Owen scored his 16th England goal to give England a 1-0 lead. From the left side of the penalty box, Emile Heskey threaded a great ball through to Paul Scholes - Scholes shot and the ball came off the goalkeeper - Michael Owen got to the ball first just in front of his marker and put the ball into the empty net.

Danny Mills was then put through by Danny Murphy but his shot was well saved by the South Korean goalkeeper, Lee Woon-Jae.

Just before half time, Hong Myung Bo had a 35 yard shot which required a good save from Nigel Martyn but England went with a deserved 1-0 half time lead.

England changed a lot of players at half time which appeared to give South Korea the advantage. Gareth Southgate was the second half captain after Michael Owen was rested at half time.

After 51 minutes, South Korea had equalised. From a Lee Chun-Soo corner, Choi Tai Uk beat Martin Keown to head the ball on - at the far post Park Ji Sung had got ahead of Teddy Sheringham and headed the ball across David James and into the net.

Soon afterwards, Joe Cole came off the left wing with a good dribble but dragged his shot wide from just outside the box. South Korea had become stronger after scoring their goal, however, and were now getting more possession than England.

There were not many clear cut chances in the second half - South Korean substitute Ahn Jung-Hwan did have a good attempt from distance with three minutes left but James saved and the match ended in a 1-1 draw.

                                                                  

Who played well:  England played better in the first half and the England captain, Michael Owen looked dangerous when he was on the pitch. Owen Hargreaves had a very good game in central midfield and will be challenging Nicky Butt for a starting place for the World Cup game against Sweden. Rio Ferdinand also looked safe in defence in the first half and Wayne Bridge put in a good performance at left back in the second half.

Who could have played better: Teddy Sheringham and Trevor Sinclair had below par games when they came on in the second half. Wes Brown also did not look as composed as Danny Mills in the right back position when he came on in the second half.

The England manager, Sven Goran Eriksson had special praise for Owen Hargreaves by saying that he played very well, was hard working and has improved his technique a lot.

Overall, South Korea will be more pleased with their performance than England and they deserved their equaliser in the second half. England will need to play better to get through their tough qualifying group in the World Cup 2002.

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Note: This England World Cup 2002 website is also available using  http://clik.to/england