NATHAN Burns might be the leading striker in the A-League competition, but on Saturday night as he lined up for the Socceroos in their Asian Cup match against Korea Republic he encountered a man whose form is just as good.
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Unfortunately for Burns that man was Korean goalkeeper Kim Jin-hyeon, the custodian producing six class saves to help his side to a 1-0 win over the Socceroos at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium.
While the result meant Korea topped the pool, Burns and his fellow Socceroos have still earned a place in the quarter-finals. They will meet China at the same venue on Thursday night.
Burns was used as a substitute in the Socceroos’ opening 4-1 win over Kuwait but was not given any game time in the 4-0 victory against Oman.
But on Saturday night Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou opted to start the Blayney product, Burns playing in behind Tomi Juric in an attacking role as Tim Cahill and Robbie Kruse instead sat on the bench.
The mentor liked what he saw from both even through they were unable to find the back of the net.
“I thought they were still bright,” he said. “Burnsy, I thought some of the stuff he did was really fantastic, it’s his first start for probably five, well four, years at international level.
“On another night they both [Burns and Juric] could’ve had a goal. It wasn’t to be tonight, the goalkeeper made a couple of wonderful saves off them.”
Burns and Juric strung some nice passes together early on in what was a good sign for the Socceroos and in the ninth minute gave their rivals a test.
Burns intercepted a loose ball from Kim Yong-gwon and looked to cut back to Juric, but the defender was able to recover and shut him down.
Not long after Jin-hyeon was called upon to save Korea when Burns very nearly snuck in a shot on the near post.
The commitment and work ethic from Burns was impressive, but it earned him a yellow card in the 29th minute when his shoulder connected with the head of Park Joo-Ho in an aerial challenge.
Worse came three minutes later when Korea scored what was to be the only goal of the match, Lee Jeong-hyeop finding the mark in front of the sell-out 48,513 crowd.
Burns’s best moment came in the 69th minute when in a classy solo run he beat four defenders, but again Jin-hyeon came up with a quality block.
