Soccer-Iraq's Asian Cup dream over after loss to South Korea

By Julian Linden SYDNEY, Jan 26 (Reuters) - The weight of expectation was just too much for Iraq in the end. As hard as they tried, they were unable to conjure up another miracle win at the Asian cup, losing 2-0 to South Korea in the semi-finals on Monday. Iraq's unexpected victory at the 2007 Asian Cup remains one of the most inspiring sports stories of the new millennium, providing a rare moment of joy to a country torn apart by war. By defying the odds again and reaching the semi-finals eight years later, Iraq's footballers offered another ray of hope to their troubled homeland. But motivation alone was not enough to help Iraq overcome a South Korean team driven to bring some relief to their own country, still grieving over last year's Sewol ferry disaster. "To reach the semi-finals is an amazing achievement for the team," Iraqi head coach Radhi Shenaishil said, speaking through a translator. "I'm very proud of my players, I think they played a quality match but the Korean team was very fast. "We made two mistakes and they used them to score... if we could have scored early (after going down 2-0), I think we could have got a draw, but we couldn't get the goal." The odds were against Iraq even before the kick-off. The Koreans had an extra day's rest because they played their quarter-final a day earlier than Iraq. Iraq's players were still physically and emotionally weary after their gruelling quarter-final win over their old foes Iran on Friday, a classic match that was decided by penalties after the teams finished tied at 3-3 at the end of extra time. But they still ran themselves to the point of exhaustion at Sydney's Olympic stadium against a South Korean team that have not given up a single goal in the tournament. "There's a disadvantage from the local organising committee. There are some teams with three days, some teams with four days to recover," Shenaishil said. "That was a disadvantage for us... and that should have been organised more but regardless of that, there were players today who had a quality match, they produced their best in less than 72 hours of recovery. "I've got to take off my hat and respect the players, they played a quality match, and hopefully we can work in the future to solve these mistakes." Despite the obvious disappointment of losing, Shenaishil was optimistic about the Iraqi team's future, even though the players can't train or play matches at home because of the ongoing war. "There's good signs for the team," he said. "There's a lot of young players we can work with a build for the future, especially with the World Cup qualifiers coming up." (Editing by Sudipto Ganguly)