Qatar 0 - Iran 0; South Korea 3 - Lebanon 0

South Korea faced off against Lebanon in Goyang, the third meeting between the two sides in the 2014 FIFA World Cup.  Lebanon and South Korea had split their two previous meetings, and the lower-ranked Cedars looked sharp at the start.  Ahmad Zreik fired a rocket toward the South Korean goal, but his ball skimmed the top of the crossbar.  At the half hour mark, the fancied favorites pushed into the lead when Lee Keun-Ho's nice cross found Kim Bo-Kyung, who from there proceeded to unleash a bomb with his left foot for his first international goal.  The strike struck the hands of the goalkeeper Ziad El Samad, but nevertheless went in off the underside of the crossbar.  The Taegeuk Warriors led 1-0 at the break

Shortly after the resumption of the festivities, Kim Bo-Kyung had his second international goal.  El Samad continued to have trouble with Kim Bo-Kyung, this time charging off his line only to be chipped quite easily by the South Korean winger.  The match began to even out from then on, but a bad turnover by Hussein Dakik in his own half circle led to a masterpiece third goal from Koo Ja-Cheol.  Koo stripped Dakik and took one step before leaving El Samad rooted to the ground with his perfectly placed strike.  South Korea win 3-0.

Qatar for the second time in the past five months faced a qualifying test on the road in Tehran against Iran before 100,000 spectators.  Iran always looked the stronger side in this match, but Team Melli could not breach the Qatari goal.  Qatar goalkeeper Qasem Burhan had a game for the ages.  He may have even covered more ground than some of his defenders with the long runs he made to snag cross after cross and corner and corner within his box.  With Burhan playing like a man possessed, Iran were under pressure to find a solitary goal.  On the hour mark, Iran captain Javad Nekounam gathered with his chest and turned on a dime to fire off the volley, but his effort hit the crossbar.  Kasola Mohammed (pictured, burgundy #3) nearly gave the visitors the lead five minutes on, but his effort was saved.

In the second period, Qatar appeared to keep nine players behind the ball in order to play for a road draw.  Parking the bus did the job as Iran were thoroughly frustrated for the duration of the second half.  For the third time in three matches, Qatar and Iran played to a draw, this time by a 0-0 scoreline.

South Korea 6 pts +4
Iran 4 pts +1
Qatar 4 pts -2
Uzbekistan 1 pts -1
Lebanon 1 pts -4

Goals
South Korea
Kim Bo-Kyung 30, 48
Koo Ja-Cheol 90

Match Reports:
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=1648351/index.html
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=1648658/index.html
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/soccer/wires/06/12/2080.ap.soc.iran.qatar.1st.ld.writethru.288/index.html

Highlights:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh9ja8UYsxc&list=UUrFQLqsYh2awrD2NqD8LPpw&index=2&feature=plcp (South Korea v. Lebanon)