Spying dominates build-up to South Korea v Sweden
South Korea coach Shin Tae Yong yesterday shrugged off spying allegations by World Cup opponents Sweden, who apologised on the eve of their Group F clash after initially trumpeting their subterfuge.
The teams begin their campaigns tonight and have been creative in trying to study each other's tactics in the build-up to their clash at the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium.
| SWEDEN | SOUTH KOREA |
A Swedish scout used a house near South Korea's training base in Austria this month to watch training sessions using a high performance telescope and video camera.
"It took a long car journey up the mountains to reach the house, but it was a perfect spot to observe the Korean team's training," Lars Jacobsson, a member of the Swedish coaching staff, said yesterday.
He had earlier been kicked out of a closed training session, after failing to convince the South Koreans he was a passing tourist, and persuaded a local couple to let him use their house, overlooking the training facility, to watch their rivals working on their World Cup routines.
Sweden coach Janne Andersson apologised for it yesterday.
"It is very important we show respect for an opponent and, if what we did has been perceived in another way, then we apologise," Andersson said.
"This is something small that has been turned into something much bigger because usually our information about our opponents comes from us watching them play matches."
It was all no matter to the South Koreans, insisted Shin, who said such in-depth analysis of opponents was now the international norm. In any case, he had a ruse of his own to outfox the Swedes - making his players wear different jersey numbers.
He said: "We switched them around because we didn't want to show our opponents everything and to try and confuse them. They might know a few of our players, but it is very difficult for Westerners to distinguish between Asians and that's why we did that." - REUTERS
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