Sven's master plan needs more work

Owen's pace, though, gradually began to tell and one darting run on the left almost produced the opening goal. The Korean goalkeeper Lee did well to get his hand to Owen's curled shot but it then required the intervention of Jin-Cheul Choi and Yong-Pyo Lee to deny Darius Vassell an easy scoring opportunity.

Campbell was briefly in trouble in the 18th minute when Ki-Hyeon Seol turned past him easily, but the Arsenal defender made a timely recovering tackle to prevent the Korean striker from bursting into the penalty area.

Seol, who plays for Anderlecht in Belgium, seemed to relish the physical side of the game. In fact, the Koreans made it clear early on that they were not going to be intimidated by England.

Danny Mills, a candidate to replace the injured Gary Neville at rightback, had a shot deflected over the bar but the Koreans made it clear that they were not about to fold following Owen's goal. Chun-Soo Lee, the team's glamour boy, provoked gasps of appreciation from the crowd with one long-range shot that curled over the bar before Yong-Pyo Lee hit a shot from even greater distance.

The best effort though came from their 33-year-old captain, Myung-Bo Yoo, whose thudding drive from 30 yards forced a fine finger-tip save from Martyn just before half-time.

This, for Eriksson, was the last chance to assess players in action before finalising the 23-man squad that travels to Japan this weekend. He and his coaching staff were due to meet immediately after the match to decide on their squad before passing the names to FIFA.

A near-capacity crowd of around 40,000 were here to see whether Korea coach Guus Hiddink, who led Holland to the semi-finals in France 98, had done enough to mould underachieving players into a team capable of reaching the knockout stages for the first time.

The stadium had only once before staged international football - the opening match last December when the Koreans beat the USA 1-0. This time there were small groups of England fans, flying flags from Barnet, Bexhill and Bournemouth, and there was no obvious large-scale security presence. The security in England's defence was woeful, though, at the start of the second half. Eriksson made seven substitutions, four in defence where David James, Martin Keown, Gareth Southgate and Wayne Bridge were given the chance to stake a claim for a place in the opening game.

They didn't do their prospects much good in the 52nd minute when they failed to clear a corner from Chun-Soo Lee. Jin-Cheul Choi met the ball at the far post with a glancing header that flew across the face of the goal. Ji-Sung Park broke away from another second-half substitute, Sheringham, and met the ball with a powerful header that gave James little chance.

Eriksson's decision to make so many changes - Wes Brown later replacing Mills - robbed England of any rhythm and cohesion they'd established in the first half. Sheringham made no significant impression, though Hargreaves and Vassell, England's best players, were still full of running. Vassell went closest to restoring England's lead when he headed wide from a Trevor Sinclair free-kick with 13 minutesto go.

In the end James had to save England from an embarrassing defeat when he dived full stretch to block a shot from substitute Jung-Hwan Ahn.

England v South Korea: Pictures
How Sven's men rated out of ten