Hyderabad, July 28: Under steady drizzle and slippery condition the Koreans, as Indians were expecting in the dressing room clutching three points, did not slip. Instead, they knocked the daylights out of the Kazakhs under floodlights to emerge top in the Asian Youth (under-16) Soccer Group IV qualifiers at Lal Bahadur Stadium today. Like India a couple of days ago, Korea too clobbered Kazakhstan by six goals, but the latter found the gap in the last ten minutes to slot home one.With their hopes dismantled, India took on Pakistan in the final clash of the competition, and the teams had to literally wrestle for the ball with ground condition going from bad to worse under unrelenting rain.The crowd enjoyed every bit of it as player after player skated chasing the ball. And this continued till the breather. But after a prolonged break, an announcement came that the match for the day was abandoned due to water logging and non-visibility of penalty area marking.According to match commissioner ZafarImam, a decision regarding the tie would be taken late in the night, and only on the morrow would one know whether it would be replayed or declared a draw.In the first match, Kim Il Jong dazzled for Korea knocking in three goals while Kim Song Chol and Jon Chol scored one each, and the other one was a self-goal. For Kazakhstan, Tulegenov Kuandy got the consolation, in the 71st minute, booting in from close. He took advantage of the ball which bounced off the bar following a flag-kick.Korea's domination was absolute in the entire 80 minutes with both offence and defence admirably tightened.The robust Kazakhs, the weakest in the competition, who could not deliver against India and Pakistan under normal playing condition, were not expected to torment the Koreans, that too, in sharp drizzle. But they withstood the pounding for eight minutes before succumbing.Following a flag-kick from right, the assiduous Kim Song Chol directed the ball to the target with his head to open the account.Then aftertwelve minutes, and after umpteen number of slips on the slushly field, Kim Il Song, the hero of the day, scored off a beautiful pass from Han Ju Ho (2-0).It really rained in the second half, so did the goals. Just three minutes after the restart, Kazakh Stretosov Yuriy in order to block a cross from left put his foot in between, but unfortunately the ball crashed into his own goal. In the very next minute Jon Chol connected Ri Chong Il's left cross with his head to take the tally to 4-0.Kim Il Jong scored the last two goals, the fifth was a header rolling into net in the 57th minute, and the last was a neat placement with goalie out of position.DPR Korea thus kept their record immaculate and notched six points. They will join eight other qualifiers and hosts for the Asian championship finals in Doha in October. The winners and runners-up in the Asian championship will play in the Youth World Cup to be played in New Zealand in 1999.
