For a long are unable to attend time in international football tournaments Cuba was defeated by South Korea’s  experience.

The tournament’s official curtain raiser in Kayseri marks Cuba’s debut on the global stage at this level, as they take on Korea Republic. While the Cubans have their sights set on more than merely winning over the neutrals, the Asians are focusing on going through a FIFA U-20 World Cup group stage unbeaten for a second time. The first instance came at the 1993 tournament edition, although the Koreans’ three consecutive draws were not enough to reach the next round.

South Korea came from a goal down to beat tournament newcomer Cuba 2-1 in the Group B opener. Reyes opened the scoring for Cuba in the seventh minute, only for the Asian champions to score twice in the second half. Kwon Chang-hoon scored a penalty in the 51st, and Rey Seung-woo hit the winner in the 83rd.

Cuba went from heaven to hell in its debut in the FIFA U-20 World Cup Turkey 2013, by losing its match today 1-2 to South Korea in the Kadir Has Stadium in this city Friday.

The match marked the debut of the Cuban selection in this category, in which the Asians clearly dominated, although the Cuban team played the first 15 minutes quite well.

In these initial instants, Cuba carried the weight of the match and even got ahead in the score in the 7th minute thanks to its central forward Maikel Reyes, who scored the first Cuban goal.

The surprise lasted little since South Korean head coach, Kwang Jong Lee, restructured the tactical scheme and sent more men to the central zone, and finished by giving him a remarkable turn to the match at the 20th minute.

In spite of the changes, Cuba held on bravely and arrived with 1-0 to half time, with the intact illusion to powdering the prognoses, which widely favoured South Korea, because of its greater experience.

Surcorea managed to tie the score in the 51th when the South Korean midfield player Changhoon Kwon transformed in goal a penalti committed by Reyes in the extreme of the big area, to a large extent by the ultra-conservadurism of the Cuban trainer, Raúl González Triana, the one who without a solid reason, delayed the lines of his team.

After this, South Korea went for the second goal, after failing two very clear opportunities in the minutes 73 and 75, attained the victory goal in the 83rd, when taking advantage of a ball loss in the centre of the field of the Cuban central players.

The goal of the triumph was scored by Seungwoo Ryu, after clearing a counter-attack, in superiority of four attackers against three defenders.

Cuba had an option to tie the match, but Reyes arrived late by thousandths to take advantage of an error in the South Korean back defense, superior in the statistics when having 62 percent of ball possession, shoot 12 times to goal and achieve 14 corner kickoffs.

This way, South Korea carried the three points and became the leader of this group B, while Cuba can boast to having obtained a worthy result when keeping South Korea against the ropes by more than 50 minutes, during its first match.

The next match for Cuba will be on June 24 versus Nigeria, that later will play today against Portugal, favourite for leader.

Spain 4 – USA 1: Favorite Spain easy gain

 

Spain showed why it is favored to win the Under-20 World Cup by beating the United States 4-1 on Friday in its opener after doubles from star strikers Jese and Gerard Deulofeu.

France also turned in a strong performance in the other Group A match, scoring two second-half goals within four minutes to win 3-1 against Ghana.

Spain opened the scoring when Deulofeu fires a shot across the goal mouth and Jese volleyed the ball into the net in the fifth minute.

The Americans could have leveled in the 13th but Joaquin Hernandez shot wide when faced with an open net. The U.S. team controlled the tempo for the next 15 minutes but could only contain Spain’s strikers for so long.

Deulofeu received the ball outside the area, sidestepped a defender and sent a blistering shot just beyond goalkeeper Cody Cropper to make it 2-0 in the 42nd. The European champions caught the defense sleeping two minutes later.

Javier Manquillo made a great run, passed to Jese, who was lurking in the area, and the Real Madrid striker scored his second goal just before halftime.

Spain seemed to content to sit back for much of the second half, but again its counterattack paid dividends. Deulofeu received a long ball, got around Cropper and scored his second.

The Americans pulled one back when Luis Gil scored from just outside the area in the 77th.

France, which lost to Spain in the semifinals of the Under-19 European Championship, showed it has the attack to go far in the tournament.

After Ghana missed several early chances, France dominated the Group A encounter for much of the second period. The French hit the post in the 51st minute before Sevilla midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia put the team ahead with a header in the 65th. Three minutes later, Kondogbia chipped a nifty pass into the area for Auxerre striker Yaya Sanogo to shoot between the legs of goalkeeper Eric Antwi.

France forward Jean Christophe Bahebeck scored a third in 79th, before Ghana substitute Yiadom Boakye pulled one back in the 85th.

”Today, we were lacking a lot of things. We had a very average game but in the end we won 3-1,” France coach Pierre Mankowski said. ”So I told the boys it was important to win because it was the first game. Clearly we can enhance our game, and in fact we have to be stronger for the next games.”

Mankowski was full of praise for Kondogbia and Sanogo for wreaking havoc on Ghana’s defense, using their size and quickness to outflank the smaller defenders and to get to loose balls in the area. Sanogo has shown the most improvement since he spent a year playing for Sevilla, Mankowski said.

”Now he understands the right moment to try and score, the moments to make a difference,” Mankowski said. ”When he is good on the pitch, the team is good.”

Ghana coach Sellas Tetteh, who managed his side to the 2009 title, blamed the loss on several defensive lapses and missed chances when his team dominated in the first 20 minutes.

”It’s not good that we lost but I believe there were a few things there we could take home,” he said. ”We had a wonderful first half, but we were a little bit sloppy midway in the second. We also conceded that early goal. That created a lot of problems for us. We finished the game stronger and that is positive.”

Security has been stepped up at all seven sites following weeks of sometimes violent protests after riot police cracked down on environmental activists who opposed plans to remove trees and develop Gezi Park in Istanbul. But the protests this week have given way to peaceful resistance, and there were no signs of protesters Friday at the Ali Sami Yen Arena.

Instead, the problem was a lack of spectators. The match only attracted 2,800 fans, leaving much of the 50,000-seat stadium empty. That confirmed FIFA’s fears ahead of the tournament that tickets were selling too slowly, with only 300,000 of the 1.3 million tickets sold.

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