South Korea ease to win over Greece

Jung-soo Lee opened the scoring in the seventh minute and captain Ji-sung Park doubled the lead in the 52nd with a slick solo goal.

South Korea's midfielder Ji-Sung Park, left, fights for the ball with Greece's defender Lukas Vyntra.

PORT ELIZABETH // South Korea eased to a 2-0 win over a lacklustre Greece side in Saturday's first Group B match of the World Cup. Jung-soo Lee tapped in unmarked to open the scoring in the seventh minute at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium and captain Ji-sung Park doubled the lead in the 52nd with a slick solo goal. The Manchester United midfielder collected a misplaced pass from Vassilis Torosidis and skipped past two defenders before slipping a shot across goalkeeper Alexandros Tzorvas and in at the far post. Striker Chu-young Park had another three chances to score for South Korea and Fanis Gekas had a shot saved with 10 minutes left for what was Greece's first clear effort. South Korea spent much of the opening minutes giving the ball away to the former European champions and defending desperately, but it scored from their first real chance. Sung-yong Ki curled in a free kick with his right foot from near the left corner flag and the ball brushed the top of Konstantinos Katsouranis' head before reaching Lee at the far post, where the central defender easily tapped into an unguarded net. Rehhagel took off captain Giorgos Karagounis at the interval but South Korea continued to dominate despite Greece's adventurous three-man attack and Ji-sung Park made it 2-0. Torosidis gave the ball away to Ji-sung Park midway inside his own half. Ji-sung Park surged forward and beat two sliding tackles before coolly scoring with a low shot.

Greece mustered only a couple of blocked shots and appealed desperately for a late penalty when Gekas' shot hit a defender. The South Korean had his arms raised but replays showed the ball hit his body. Gekas then unleashed a shot from about 12 meters but goalkeeper Sung-ryong Jung punched it over the bar. * AP Man of the match: Park Cho-Young