SEOUL: South Korea trounced Honduras 4-0 Friday to win its first home football friendly this year. South Korea dominated the first half at the Seoul World Cup Stadium, watched by some 30,000 fans, and defender Lee Jung-soo kicked in a loose ball to open the scoring in the 28th minute. Two minutes before half-time midfielder Kim Jung-woo doubled the lead, converting a pass from Monaco striker Park Chu-young, the home side's new captain, past Honduras' diving keeper Noel Valladares. Park headed in a cross in the 83rd minute, and Lee Keun-ho rounded out the scoring with a header in the final seconds. “I am very gratified that we're growing into a relentless team that can play hard until the final whistle,” coach Cho Kwang-rae said, according to Yonhap news agency. He praised a good combination of starting midfielders — Ki Sung-Yueng of Scottish giants Celtic, Kim Jung-Woo and Lee Yong-Rae — for establishing control of the match early on. “I've long been concerned about our touch around the net. But we've made big strides in our shooting and movements around the goal,” Cho said. Honduras coach Jose Reynaldo Clavasquin admitted his defense broke down after the second goal. New Zealand holds China China began its long qualification march to the 2014 Brazil World Cup Friday by drawing New Zealand 1-1 in a warm-up friendly at home — but did not score itself. In just the third minute, New Zealand goalie Glen Moss deflected a Du Wei header on to Andrew Boyens' back, only to see the ball rebound into the net for an own goal. Both sides missed numerous chances until Michael McGlinchey netted a sharp shot from outside the area in the 53rd minute for the equalizer. In a bizarre twist China began its campaign to reach the World Cup Finals by splitting the national team into two sides to play three friendlies in five days. Following Friday's match, Team A will play Honduras in Wuhan Tuesday, while head coach Gao Hongbo missed the New Zealand game and is already in Costa Rica to lead Team B in a friendly against that country Sunday. The double-teaming comes after Gao invited a total of 40 players to train for the national side ahead of World Cup 2014 qualifying, which begins in late June. In China's first and only appearance in a World Cup final tournament in 2002, the team failed to win a match or even score during the event, jointly hosted by Japan and S. Korea. Estonia beats Uruguay Minnow Estonia beat big name visitor Uruguay 2-0 in a friendly Friday, as snow fell and temperatures in the Baltic nation plunged below zero. After a clean sheet for both sides in the first half, Estonian midfielder Konstantin Vassiljev opened the scoring after 61 minutes and just four minutes later striker Vjatseslav Zahovaiko added a second for the host. There was a snow shower during the match and temperatures dropped to -6 Celsius by the final whistle.
