• Submitted by: lena campos
• Sports
• 06 / 23 / 2013

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Cuba went from heaven to hell in its debut in the FIFA U-20 World Cup Turkey 2013, by losing its match today 1-2 to South Korea in the Kadir Has Stadium in this city Friday.

The match marked the debut of the Cuban selection in this category, in which the Asians clearly dominated, although the Cuban team played the first 15 minutes quite well.

In these initial instants, Cuba carried the weight of the match and even got ahead in the score in the 7th minute thanks to its central forward Maikel Reyes, who scored the first Cuban goal.

The surprise lasted little since South Korean head coach, Kwang Jong Lee, restructured the tactical scheme and sent more men to the central zone, and finished by giving him a remarkable turn to the match at the 20th minute.

In spite of the changes, Cuba held on bravely and arrived with 1-0 to half time, with the intact illusion to powdering the prognoses, which widely favoured South Korea, because of its greater experience.

Surcorea managed to tie the score in the 51th when the South Korean midfield player Changhoon Kwon transformed in goal a penalti committed by Reyes in the extreme of the big area, to a large extent by the ultra-conservadurism of the Cuban trainer, Raúl González Triana, the one who without a solid reason, delayed the lines of his team.

After this, South Korea went for the second goal, after failing two very clear opportunities in the minutes 73 and 75, attained the victory goal in the 83rd, when taking advantage of a ball loss in the centre of the field of the Cuban central players.

The goal of the triumph was scored by Seungwoo Ryu, after clearing a counter-attack, in superiority of four attackers against three defenders.

Cuba had an option to tie the match, but Reyes arrived late by thousandths to take advantage of an error in the South Korean back defense, superior in the statistics when having 62 percent of ball possession, shoot 12 times to goal and achieve 14 corner kickoffs.

This way, South Korea carried the three points and became the leader of this group B, while Cuba can boast to having obtained a worthy result when keeping South Korea against the ropes by more than 50 minutes, during its first match.

The next match for Cuba will be on June 24 versus Nigeria, that later will play today against Portugal, favourite for leader.

In the other result of this day France defeated Ghana 3-1 and is heading Group A, in which the teams of United States and Spain also appear.

Source: Prensa Latina