Bento says S. Korea earned ‘precious’ win vs. Uruguay

SEOUL, Oct. 12 (Yonhap) — South Korea football coach Paulo Bento said Friday his side earned a “precious” victory after beating Uruguay 2-1 in a friendly match at home.

South Korea, 55th in the latest FIFA rankings, beat No. 5 Uruguay 2-1 at Seoul World Cup Stadium in Seoul on Friday for South Korea’s first win against Uruguay in their national team history. Prior to Friday’s match, South Korea had one draw and six losses against Uruguay.

Bento said his players played well in general, although they looked to be rushing in the late phase of the match.

“We played a good quality game,” Bento said at a post-match press conference. “It’s a precious win because we got this result against a great team. We know that Uruguay are a very organized team with experienced players.”

Against Uruguay, Bento used a same 4-3-3 lineup that the South Korean team also deployed in a 0-0 draw with Chile last month. The only difference was the starting goalkeeper.

When asked about if he will stick to the lineup for the Asian Cup next January, Bento said he will make the decision after playing the remaining friendly matches this year.

“We’re still in the process of building our team philosophy, and I decided the starting lineup based on what I saw in training and the players’ performance in recent matches,” he said. “We still have to see what this team can do in other matches and I’ll later decide whether I should make changes or not.”

Even though they collected a historic win, Bento said he will keep trying to make improvements with the national team. Bento’s side will next face Panama at Cheonan Stadium in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, on Tuesday.

“You can never play a perfect game,” he said. “We’ll find our problems from this match later and will work on recovery of our players’ fitness before the next match.”

South Korea national football team head coach Paulo Bento gives directions to his players during a friendly match against Uruguay at Seoul World Cup Stadium in Seoul on Oct. 12, 2018. (Yonhap)