Eriksson's meagre resources exposed

South Korea 1 England 1

A check of Sogwipo diners suggests Fifa have succeeded in keeping dog off the menu for this World Cup. Whether England can avoid serving up a dog's dinner of a performance is less clear.

That was the inevitable conclusion yesterday after a competent but by no means exceptional South Korean side joyfully exposed the threadbare nature of Sven Goran Eriksson's resources.

England, opening with the best XI they can currently muster, marginally deserved the half-time lead provided by Michael Owen, but were fortunate to end the friendly level after the 'second-half stiffs' were convincingly outplayed.

Most damning of all was the realisation that Korea's unheralded footballers, few of whom play their club football on a significant stage, were tactically smarter than men with hundreds of English Premiership matches under their belt.

England, as expected, had begun with a 4-3-3 formation. The Koreans, noted their coach Guus Hiddink approvingly, reacted within minutes, adapting their customary 3-4-3 line-up to match England's. Eriksson's second string were unable to show the same flexibility and, with Korea dominating, Eriksson was forced to retreat to the comfort zone provided by 4-4-2.

"Some of the new players [half-time substitutes] were not used to 4-3-3 so I went to 4-4-2 to give them a better chance to perform," he said. "We were giving South Korea too many chances to win the ball."

Setting aside the back four, whose role does not alter significantly whatever the formation in front of them, the three 'new players' were Joe Cole, Trevor Sinclair and Teddy Sheringham. Cole, at 20, can be forgiven, but the other two, whose ages add to 65, cannot hide behind a lack of experience.

It highlighted the logic behind Eriksson's strategy. The famous acronym KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) came to mind. Defence is based on a flat-back four, because English players feel comfortable in them, with midfield pressing. Attack is built around getting the ball forward early. Since English players, brought up on the high-tempo Premiership, give the ball away too often, Eriksson would rather they dallied with it in areas where losing possession is unlikely to hurt.

"If you run with the ball in your own half you always risk losing it," he said, adding, "losing it up front is OK. Sometimes we take too many touches. We have not come here to make 50 passes before shooting. That is not the way to do it."

This is not that far removed from Jack Charlton's Ireland - or John Beck's Cambridge. The difference is, or should be, better players. When David Beckham, Steven Gerrard and Paul Scholes are supplying the ammunition, and Michael Owen pulling the trigger, it is. But Gerrard is in England, Beckham is lame, and Scholes and Owen only played the first half. Unsurprisingly they combined for England's 26th-minute goal, Owen tapping in after Scholes, put through by Heskey's only telling intervention, had seen his close-range shot saved.

There was one ray of light. Owen Hargreaves, one of only three players to play the full 90 minutes, had an excellent game. Eriksson paid tribute to his work-rate and ball-winning skills, but Hargreaves also played two of the three best passes of the first half – the other came from Scholes. Each time Owen was the beneficiary, but he was first denied by the outstanding Korean sweeper, Hong Myung-bo, then, after Lee Woon-ja saved his shot Lee Young-pyo cleared off the line from Darius Vassell.

Hargreaves ended the match with a sore knee. While this was the only injury, it highlighted the folly of Eriksson's decision to use all eight substitutes before the last third forcing Hargreaves to play to the end.

Another positive was a generally impressive display from Danny Mills, aggressive on the ball ,but not overly so in the tackle. Though the lively Lee Chun-soo did embarrass him once, Wes Brown had such a shocker, Mills is sure of his place.

Rio Ferdinand, Sol Campbell and Gareth Southgate also did well, but Martin Keown was beaten to a corner by Kim Nam-il for Korea's 52nd-minute equaliser, Park ji-sung stealing away from Teddy Sheringham to head in his flick-on.

That capped a bad night for Sheringham who was completely off the pace. With Sinclair, Heskey, Vassell and Joe Cole also disappointing, England were thereafter negligible as an attacking force.

Pre-tournament friendlies can be unreliable guides. Recently France have lost to Belgium and Italy to the Czech Republic. Before reaching the semi-finals of, respectively, Italia 90 and Euro 96, England drew miserable games against Tunisia and a Hong Kong Select XI. But while the runes can be hard to read in full, the clear message from this match is that they cannot afford to be without any more of their major players. Local lore has it that Cheju island is inhabited by 18,000 Gods. England need some of them to keep watch on Owen, Scholes and Beckham.

SOUTH KOREA (4-3-3): Lee Woon-jae (Suwon Samsung); Song Chong-guk (Pusan Icons), Hong Myung-bo (Pohang Steelers), Choi Jin-cheul (Chonbuk Hyundai), Lee Young-po (Anyang LG); Park Ji-sung (Kyoto Sanga), Yoo Sang-chul (Kashiwa Reysol), Kim Nam-il (Chunnam Dragons); Choi Tae-uk (Anyang LG), Seol Ki-yeon (Anderlecht), Lee Chun-soo (Ulsan Hyundai). Substitutes: Ahn Jung-hwan (Perugia) for Seol, 56; Cha Du-ri (Korea University) for Choi T-u, 76; Lee Min-sung (Pusan Icons) for Kim, 90.

ENGLAND (4-3-3): Martyn (Leeds United); Mills (Leeds United), Ferdinand (Leeds United), Campbell (Arsenal), A Cole (Arsenal); Murphy (Liverpool), Hargreaves (Bayern Munich), Scholes (Manchester United); Vassell (Aston Villa), Owen (Liverpool), Heskey (Liverpool). Substitutes: James (West Ham United) for Martyn, h-t; Southgate (Middlesbrough) for Ferdinand h-t; Keown (Arsenal) for Campbell, h-t, Bridge (Southampton) for A Cole, h-t; Sinclair (West Ham United) for Murphy, h-t; J Cole (West Ham United) for Scholes, h-t; Sheringham (Tottenham) for Owen, h-t; Brown (Manchester United) for Mills, 66.

Referee: A K Supian (Malaysia).