Maradona hails players as Argentina catch fire

DIEGO MARADONA was much more sedate yesterday after witnessing his Argentina team dismantle South Korea 4-1 at Soccer City, instead lavishing praise upon his players.

The Albiceleste coach, who took a swipe at fellow legends Pele and Michel Platini on Wednesday, even took the time to apologise to the UEFA president for his comments.

And Maradona had reason to be happy after the South Americans’ dominant display, which saw Real Madrid’s Gonzalo Higuain bag the first hat-trick of the World Cup.

“I’d like to commend my players for the job they’ve done on the pitch,” Maradona said. “This shows what we have been training for was right. We have discussed certain elements before and they were able to produce that on the pitch. Everything went well.”

The first real chance of the match fell to Higuain on the right after good build-up play involving Carlos Tevez and Lionel Messi, but the shot was lashed over.

It did not take much longer, though, for the first goal to arrive, a nicely flighted free-kick from Barcelona forward Messi on the left caught out Park Chu-young as he deflected the ball into his own net.

Tevez almost doubled the advantage shortly before the half-hour mark when his fizzing 20-yard free-kick continued to rise and ended up in the north stand at Soccer City.

But that lead was extended when a short free-kick on the left came to Rodriguez, whose ball into the box was flicked on by Burdisso to Higuain, who put his free header beyond the helpless Jung Sung-ryong.

As the first half wound down, though Demichelis took his eye off a header from Park Chu-young, allowing Bolton midfielder Lee to nip in and score.

The big chances dried up for the South Americans thereafter – Messi and Higuain firing straight at Jung – and Maradona threw in Sergio Aguero for Tevez.

The moved proved an instant hit with the Atletico Madrid forward playing in Messi on the left – his initial shot was blocked by Jung and the rebound shot hit the base of the left upright and fell to Higuain for a simple tap-in.

That was in the 76th minute and four minutes later the Real Madrid star completed his hat-trick after nodding in Aguero’s cross at the back post to complete a flowing move.

Korean coach Huh Jung-moo felt his side did well to compete and pointed towards a chance early in the second half as the turning point of the game.

Yeom Ki-hun should have drawn his side level after 55 minutes but could only find the side-netting.

Huh said: “In the second half, when Argentina were slowing down a little bit, Yeom Ki-hun, if he had made the goal I think we would have managed to change the flow of the game.”

As for his comments regarding Platini – who reportedly made negative remarks about him – Maradona revealed that he was misinformed after receiving a letter from the French legend which shed more light on the matter.

He added: “The other day I spoke about Mr Platini. Mr Platini sent me a letter saying that he never said what you (the media) told me he said.

“So, through you, I would like to apologise to Mr Platini.”

ARGENTINA: Romero, Gutierrez, Demichelis, Samuel (Burdisso 23), Heinze, Maxi, Mascherano, Di Maria, Higuain (Bolatti 82), Messi, Tevez (Aguero 75).

SOUTH KOREA: Jung, Oh, Cho, Jung-Soo Lee, Young-Pyo Lee, Chung-Yong Lee, Ki (Nam-Il Kim 46), Jung-Woo Kim, Yeom, Ji-Sung Park, Chu-Young Park (Dong-Gook Lee 81).

Ref: Frank De Bleeckere (Belgium).