Boring Belgians sent packing

Georges Leekens traversed the entire spectrum of football emotion in the Parc des Princes yesterday as he watched his team crash out of the World Cup in a manner which invited derisory whistles at the end.

Well into the second half of the game, the Belgium manager was entitled to anticipate that he and his players would be staying in France, at least for another week,

At that point his team led 1-0 and Mexico trailed Holland by two clear goals in St Etienne, just the permutation needed to earn his team a meeting with either Germany or Yugoslavia in the knockout stages of the championship.

Then, out of nothing, South Korea summoned some exquisite skill to equalise and with the Mexicans scoring twice in the other game, Leekens's world collapsed around him, in scenes not wholly dissimilar from those which reduced the Spanish manager Javier Clemente to tears a day earlier.

"We had the game under control," he mused later, "And then, for a number of reasons, allowed it to slip away from us. When that happens, we can only blame ourselves, although we have to admire the way that the South Koreans got their game together in the second half."

The latter point was well made. After a dreadful start, South Korea somehow found the skill and, perhaps even more important, the will power to wrest the game back from the opposition. Belgium are scarcely the most creative team in Europe but in terms of experience and physique they took a huge advantage into the game.

When the teams lined up for the pre-match rituals, one had the impression of men against boys and Luc Nilis's goal within five minutes of the kick-off merely served to accentuate the sense of inequality.

Keun Do Kim did well to clear off the goal line from Enzo Scifo, but there was to be no reprieve when his clearance carried to Nilis; from 20 yards he drove the shot home for what looked like the start of a bombardment.

For all their territorial possession, however, the rebuilt Belgian team, with Marc Wilmots joining Nilis in the front line and Luis Oliveira deployed in a deeper role on the right, seldom threatened to score again before half-time.

They would have one further chance of making the game safe when Nilis, by far their most impressive player, skipped past the tackle of Hun Sang Lee but then, with all the hard work done, he shot against a post when it looked so much easier to score.

The consequences of that error turned out to be disastrous as the South Koreans, at times naive to the point of being outrageous, improved to the point where they provided almost all the excitement in the last half hour.

Chul Sang Yoo, their captain, grew to new authority after another of their key players, Keun Do Kim, had been forced to retire during half-time but was guilty of one of the game's bigger misses after being put in the clear just five yards out.

At that point Belgium's horizon was beginning to darken and in an attempt to retrieve the situation, Leekens withdrew Scifo and sent on the vastly experienced Franky Van Der Elst, 38 this year, to anchor things in midfield and prevent a South Korean breakthrough.

In the event, it proved a disastrous move as South Korea equalised just minutes later and in a situation in which he needed an attacking midfielder to supplement the search for a late winner, Leekens found himself committed to Van Der Elst.

Fittingly, the equaliser belonged to Yoo who got in behind the defence to make the decisive contact with a free kick by Ju Seok Ha in the 71st minute and set the scene for a barnstorming finish.

With players unashamedly diving in the penalty area in the closing minutes, the Brazilian referee Freitas Rezende had to be vigilant. But his nerve and the character of the South Koreans held up and Belgium were out.

Apart from the man on the P A system who obviously enjoyed himself in pronouncing Korean names, there wasn't a lot of recommend the first half. But once the South Koreans got to grips with the situation it was a vastly different story subsequently.

Leekens, who said last week that he wanted to stay with the team until after the 2000 European Championship, said he would talk about his future today, but he could be on his way out.

Regarding his decision to replace Scifo, Leekens said: "We needed people to chase back and get behind the ball but Enzo Scifo was not doing that. I needed to give the side balance so I brought on Franky. This was not the game for Enzo - it did not suit his style of play.

"Overall in this World Cup we did not have enough quality. We will have our critics in the next few days, that I know. For myself, I will hold a press conference at 10 a.m. in the morning."