Korea Beats Moldova 1-0 in Friendly

Korea kicked off 2018 in winning fashion, defeating Moldova 1-0 in Turkey in the first of three games during a winter training camp. Korea is preparing for the World Cup in June and a tough group containing Germany, Sweden and Mexico.

Jeonbuk Motors striker Kim Shin-wook grabbed the only goal of a low-key affair midway through the second half, heading home a Hong Chul corner.

Moldova are not at the same level as the World Cup opponents and is a minnow by European standards, ranked 166 in the world, 107 places below the Taeguk Warriors. But the result and opposition are not that important at the moment _ it is about the team spending time training with coach Shin Tae-yong.

The European-based players are still busy with their clubs, giving the K-League stars, as well as those in China and Japan, a chance to show the coach what they are made of.

As expected, it was a disjointed performance with an experimental line-up. And as expected, Lee Jae-sung was a standout, with the Jeonbuk star doing his chances of starting in Russia no harm at all.

In Korea, more attention was being paid to goings-on in China.

Park Hang-seo is, in many ways, the archetypal Korean football coach, at least of a certain generation. The bald, bespectacled tactician has been in charge of small to medium-sized K-League clubs such as Chunnam Dragons, Gyeongnam FC and Sangju Sangmu and his football style is more pragmatic than pretty.

He demands hard work, discipline and determination. Work hard and he will look after you and even tell journalists, like this one, to lay off his players.

Despite, or maybe because of all that, he is the toast of Vietnam at the moment and has been labeled the 'Asian Hiddink'.

This is not because he was a member of...