Lebanon 2 - South Korea 1; Kuwait 2 - United Arab Emirates 1

Red-hot Lebanon welcomed group leaders South Korea into Beirut. In the opening match of the group, South Korea stomped Lebanon 6-0, but this Lebanon team has made significant strides since the start of group play. In the fifth minute, a mishit shot turned into a chipped pass onto which Lebanon defender Ali Al Saadi (pictured, white #2) swung his boot and blasted the ball into the goal for Lebanon's opener. Al Saadi undid his good work earlier in the match fifteen minutes later when his overeager challenge brought down a South Korean in the penalty box, conceding a penalty that was converted for 1-1. Lebanon found themselves at the penalty spot just ten minutes later, and they restored their advantage with a conversion, giving the home crowd a 2-1 halftime lead to cheer.

In the second half, neither team could breach the other's defense, and Lebanon held on for the greatest win in their national team's history, 2-1 over South Korea. The loss left South Korea's coach pitifully looking for excuses, but nevertheless his team need only a draw at home to Kuwait to advance to the AFC Fourth Round. Forward Park Chu-Young will return for that match after he served a yellow-card suspension against Lebanon. Lebanon are now joint top of the table with South Korea and need only a draw at the United Arab Emirates to advance to the final round of Asian qualifying for the first time ever.

Kuwait saw the early group result and knew that in order to avoid elimination they had to win at home against UAE. The crowd in Kuwait City surely must have been having metaphorical heart attacks when UAE scored a goal less than twenty minutes into the match. The 1-0 halftime score certainly did not calm their nerves.

Kuwait found the equalizer less than five minutes into the second half, giving themselves forty minutes in which to take the lead. An Emirati own goal would provide the difference as a ball took a funny spin of Walid Abbas's leg and over the goal line. Abbas did his best to clear the ball with a bicycle kick, but it had already broken the plane of the goal. Kuwait ended up winning today's match 2-1, with the own goal being the winner. This was the second own goal that has saved Kuwait already in qualifying; the first came in the closing minutes of their 2-2 home draw against Lebanon. Without the own goals, Kuwait would be on five points instead of eight and would be eliminated. However, as it stands, a win in South Korea on the final matchday would send Kuwait into round four of Asian qualifying.

South Korea 10 pts +8

Lebanon 10 pts -2

Kuwait 8 pts +1

UAE OUT

Goals

Lebanon

Ali Al Saadi 5

Abbas Atwi 31 PK

South Korea

Koo Ja-Cheol 20 PK

Kuwait

Fahad Al Enezi 49

Walid Abbas 68 OG

United Arab Emirates

Ismail Matar 18

Match Reports:

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=1543009/index.html

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/soccer/wires/11/15/2080.ap.soc.lebanon.south.korea.2nd.ld.writethru.0478/index.html

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/soccer/wires/11/15/2080.ap.soc.kuwait.uae.0126/index.html

Highlights:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39j-c_GJBGw&feature=related (Lebanon v. South Korea)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZQVz3xGKeA (Kuwait v. UAE)

Full Match Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0i5mtdx54Q (Lebanon v. South Korea)