South Korea ease past Myanmar 4-0

By Peter Rutherford SUWON, South Korea (Reuters) - South Korea continued their march towards a ninth straight World Cup finals with a 4-0 win over Myanmar in Group G of Asian qualifying on Thursday. Goals from Lee Jae-sung, Koo Ja-cheol, Jang Hyun-soo and Nam Tae-hee earned Korea their fifth win from five games in front of 24,000 fans at Suwon World Cup Stadium, south of Seoul. The Koreans, who endured a woeful World Cup in Brazil, have re-established themselves as a powerhouse of the region since German Uli Stielike took over in September last year and Thursday's victory was their 15th in 19 matches played in 2015. South Korea's only defeat during that run was to Australia in the Asian Cup final in January. Even more impressive for a team castigated for calamitous defending in Brazil is that the Koreans have kept 16 clean sheets in their 19 games, conceding a total of four goals -- the same number Algeria scored against them at the World Cup finals. Korea's new-found defensive stability was rarely tested by Myanmar, the world's 161st ranked team, as the hosts dominated possession and limited their opponents to a couple of half chances that did little to trouble goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu. Korea went ahead in the 18th minute when Lee chested down a long ball out of defence from skipper Ki Sung-yueng, cut inside and fired home with his left foot. Five minutes later Korea were awarded a penalty when striker Hwang Ui-jo was tripped in the box but defender Jang rattled the spotkick against the post and failed to direct the rebound into an empty net when the ball came fizzing back at his head. The second goal arrived on the half-hour mark when Ji Dong-won exchanged passes with Ki before he crossed from the left and Koo Ja-cheol peeled away from his marker to head home. The Koreans came out flat in the second half, seemingly content to hold the ball with little danger of Myanmar staging a fight back, and it was not until the introduction of Son Heung-min that they again started looking dangerous. The Tottenham Hotspur forward, who is returning from a foot injury picked up in September, swung in a free-kick in the 82nd minute and right back Jang made up for his earlier penalty miss by heading home. Son was at the heart of the Koreans' fourth goal, exchanging quickfire passes with Nam and sending the Qatar-based midfielder through on goal to cap the scoring with four minutes left. The Koreans will play their last qualifier of the year on Tuesday in Vientiane against Laos, a team they beat 8-0 on home soil in September. (Additional reporting by Sohee Kim; Editing by Pritha Sarkar)