S Korea to apply lessons from loss to Argentina

PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa (AP):

South Korea will try to apply lessons learned in their group-stage defeat to Argentina when they face another Latin American team - Uruguay - in the round of 16 today.

It's the first of two second-round matchups pitting Asia against Latin America, the continents with the most to be pleased about at this year's World Cup. Japan take on Paraguay in the other knockout battle on Tuesday.

South Korea fell 4-1 to Argentina in Group B - their only loss in the tournament - after a Gonzalo Higuain hat-trick and an own goal.

"Of course, we did lose against Argentina but I think it was a good opportunity to learn how to fight against Latin American teams," Manchester United midfielder Park Ji-sung said yesterday.

"Tomorrow we want to play differently from how we played against Argentina," Park said. "Latin American teams have shown great individual strength and we need to come up with different plans."

Uruguay beat South Korea 1-0 at the 1990 World Cup when Daniel Fonseca scored in the 90th minute to put the South Americans into the round of 16.

It is the second time South Korea have advanced to the knockout stage in eight World Cup appearances. The other time was in 2002 when they reached the semi-finals in the tournament they co-hosted with Japan.

"We ourselves don't have clear prediction of how far we can go," Park said in comments translated from Korean. "But in 2002 we made it to the semi-finals and I don't think it was just because we were on our home ground."

In the first round, Uruguay won twice - 3-0 over South Africa and 1-0 over Mexico - and played a scoreless draw with France. The win over Mexico clinched top spot in Group A.

"The important thing is that we qualified in first place," Uruguay striker Diego Forlan said.

Quarter-final berth

South Korea, the second-place finishers in Group B, beat Greece 2-0 in their first match, lost 4-1 to powerful Argentina and drew 2-2 with Nigeria. Argentina beat Uruguay twice in South American qualifying.

Uruguay, two-time World Cup champions, are bidding for their first quarter-final berth since 1970.

Forlan, who got 32 goals two years ago for Atletico Madrid to win top European scoring honours, has scored twice at this World Cup. All of Uruguay's goals have come since Edinson Cavani was inserted into the line-up as a third striker alongside Luis Suarez for the second match against South Africa.

"We would like to offer more from an attacking point of view," Cavani said after his team's win over the host country. "We want to play in a faster, more intelligent style. We've got a team that really opens up when going forward."