No urgency

England U20 1 v Guinea U20 1
Korea U20 2 v Argentina U20 1

FIFA U20 World Cup, Group A

Played at Jeonju World Cup Football Stadium, South Korea

Tuesday 23 May 2017

Twitter @ball_sup

9 Korean Beer Ticks

Beer ticking is proving more difficult than I'd thought. We're on a leg out of Seoul. So, the pattern is (unfortunately) hoover up all the Industrial varieties & Craftalikes. In the hope we'll get to the good stuff later down the track.

There were a few Cass’s in the ground. But, today's tick was cafri, from a bottle at 4.2%. Maybe that's supposed to be the local Corona beater. You'd certainly think so from the clear glass bottle & hijack marketing logo. Quite pleasant actually. Not oversweet. Some flavour there.

Ah drat. That's the way it goes with age group football. How many chickens. A poor, lack lustre performance by England. Although Guinea were not ultra defensive, England couldn't break them down. Little creativity. Save for mazy breaks from midfield. But, we never injected any, any urgency. You've got to get at 'em. Dom C-L & Harrison Chapman were both on the bench. Both came on. Late. Not enough time to make any sort of impact.

Having got themselves in front, England engineered a superb comedy OG. Tomori got some hassle. Hit it back without looking. The keeper was outside of his box & it just rolled in easily.

The ground wasn't full. But, it was a healthy crowd as Korea were in town again. We were at the opposite end to the Red Devils, the Korean Ultras. Two big flags before kick off. Orchestrated clapping & chanting. You know the drill. I'm no expert in Korean fan culture. But, there were lots of Day Trippers. More interested in wearing the t shirts, red flashing devil horns & buying pop than watching the game. Some HT & early second half walkouts.

The Korean team looked mightily impressive though. A lot of noise behind them. Pacy. Technical skills. They ran Argentina ragged at times. But, their nerves were shot once the Argies made it 2-1. Korea have now qualified before Friday's shootout with England in Suwon.

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