South Korea 1 - Russia 1

Photo by Elsa

A hot, sticky night in Cuiaba was the scene for the matchup between Russia and South Korea. The feeling-the-opponent-out portion of this match lasted much longer than usual, and it was not until a half hour had passed that the teams began to attack. A long distance shot from Russian defender Sergey Ignasevich was saved by South Korea goalkeeper Jung Sung-Ryong. Koo Ja-Cheol (pictured, white) tried his luck from distance, but Ignasevich was able to block the attempt before any harm could be done. South Korea had the upper hand for a solid ten-minute period starting at the half-hour mark, but neither team was able to produce a goal in the first period.Victor Fayzulin had a shot on goal for Russia in the

 first minute of the second period. Russian centerback Vasily Berezutski headed a ball from a cross to the back post with extreme power, but he could not direct the ball inside of the post. Ki Sung-Yeung had time to send in a bouncing, curling shot, but Russia goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev made a diving push away to safety. Denis Kombarov was next to get off a good attempt, but Jung saved his low shot off one bounce. Akinfeev had a blunder that will haunt him forever as he let a simple Lee Keun-Ho shot headed straight for his chest bounce off his gloves and into the goal to give the South Koreans the opening goal. Luckily for Akinfeev, his teammates had his back. Heaps of pressure finally broke the dam. Hwang Seok-Ho tried to clear a ball from inside his penalty box, but Andrey Eschenko blocked the clearance with his chest and the ball fell to Russian substitute forward Aleksandr Kershakov, who smacked the ball into the net for the equalizer. In stoppage time, Russia had the ball on the left flank. Alexander Kokorin only needed a finesse pass to find Kershakov, but instead he hit a screamer well beyond his reach, letting South Korea off the hook. The match ends in a 1-1 draw.

Belgium 3 pts +1
South Korea 1 pts 0
Russia 1 pts 0
Algeria 0 pts -1

Goals
South Korea
Lee Keun-Ho 68

Russia
Aleksandr Kershakov 74

Match Reports:
http://soccer.si.com/planet-futbol/2014/06/17/russia-south-korea-world-cup-commentary-recap-group-h?eref=sihp
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/y=2014/m=6/news=unconvincing-russia-korea-share-points-2374563.html
http://www.zonalmarking.net/2014/06/18/world-cup-2014-group-stage-day-6/ (Daily Summary)

Highlights:
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/videos/highlights/match=300186499/index.html