Coach Happy With Result of Soccer Friendly Against South Korea
Alexandre Guimaraes, the Costa Rica soccer coach, told the local media on Sunday that he was happy with the Costa Rica-South Korea friendly game played on Saturday in the U.S. city of Oakland, as a warm-up for the Germany 2006 World Cup.

"It was a very high-level game and we got very good results," he said. On Saturday after Costa Rica beat South Korea 1-0, with Albaro Saborio scoring the winning goal from the penalty spot in the 40th minute.

Guimaraes said that South Korea was a strong rival and that the game had allowed the managers to see the strengths and weaknesses in their teams.

"Korea pressured us in the game. The team has played together for 10 games, while we met three days before the game. But we played a good game. It let us assess some new players and also see how the players worked together," he said.

One weakness he identified was reluctance to attack.

"I was not sure of victory. While we took advantage of our opportunity to score, Korea attacked much more, although they did not know how to take advantage of the opportunities they had created."

He was not worried by the presence of the managers of Poland, Ecuador and Germany, who are playing in the World Cup Group A, alongside Costa Rica.

He added that the team looked good, even though only it was missing five players who will play in the World Cup. Costa Rica has only agreed one more friendly ahead of the World Cup, which is to play against Iran in Tehran.