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CNN Live At Daybreak

U.S. Ties South Korea in World Cup

Aired June 10, 2002 - 05:14   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The match that's in the spotlight today at the World Cup was the U.S. versus South Korea and South Korea had the home turf advantage. Before the game, a World Cup tradition, both teams met on the field to shake hands. Seoul was off to the races. The U.S. in white, South Korea in the red shirts.

The first goal comes 24 minutes in. American Clint Mathis, sporting a Mohawk, makes a brilliant left foot shot. Later in the half, U.S. goalie Brad Friedel stops a penalty kick, just one of his many amazing saves.

But in the second half, South Korea ties with a head pass for the goal and that's how it would end, in a one all tie.

CNN's Tim Lister joins us live now from Seoul with more on this game. Everyone's been watching it this morning, Tim.

TIM LISTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Everybody in South Korea was watching this game. The streets are emptying now because it is simply pouring down. But we had an estimated 200,000 people on the streets of the capital and altogether across Korea about a million people watching it on giant TV screens that had been set up in the streets.

The game itself, a pretty tough physical encounter. The South Koreans probably deserved, in the end, to tie it, but it looked for an awful long time as if the United States was going to squeak through with that 1-0 victory and go through almost certainly to the next round.

As it is, both sides have everything to play for in their last group game and both could still qualify for that second phase -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Tim, I think what's amazing is that a couple of weeks ago while doing some sports interviews, the U.S. wasn't even expected to make it this far.

LISTER: That's true. They've really played exceptionally well, the American team. I went down and watched them against Portugal, their opening goal, their opening game. They were superb. They took the game to the Portuguese right from the start and they were 3-0 up in just half an hour. They clung on to win that game. They nearly clung on to win this game. They should be pretty confident going into their last game against Poland and they could well still make it to the second round, which would be a big surprise to everybody here -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Tim, does Poland have a good team?

LISTER: Poland has a very tough physical team. They're a little pedestrian at the back, it has to be said. But they're a team that is uncompromising in defense. The Americans will find it tough to break them down. Strangely enough, the U.S. team is one of the lightest here. They've got a lot of very slight players. So they'll find it tough against the Poles, but they know what they need to achieve to go through -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Tim Lister live from Seoul with the World Cup highlights between South Korea and the U.S.

Thanks, Tim.

World Cup fans say sleep is for wimps. There's a few die hard soccer nuts who are staying up all night to watch the soccer overseas. We found a good sized crowd at a Los Angeles area bar to watch the game. But these folks are mostly Korean-Americans rooting against the U.S. team.

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