Defending champs open with win

SEOUL — The second Peace Cup has brought eight major teams from four continents to South Korea in what in many ways is a clash of champions.

The tournament opened Friday night with the 2003 Peace Cup champion, Dutch club PSV Eindhoven, downing six-time Korean champion Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma 2-1 at World Cup Stadium in Seoul.

Joining the Dutch and Korean champs in Group A is 2004 South America club champion Once Caldas from Colombia and French champion Lyon. Group B includes English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur, Spanish team Real Sociedad, South African club Mamelodi Sundowns and Argentina’s legendary Boca Juniors, the club on which Diego Maradona began his career.

The winners of the two groups will play for the $2million prize July24.

Profits from the event, which had an average match attendance of more than 28,000 in 2003, will go to fund soccer programs in poor countries.

“The object of the tournament is to present and spread the vision of peace and culture in the world through football,” said tournament organizer Chung Hwan Kwak, the Seongnam owner who is serving a two-year term as president of the 13-team K-League, Korea’s professional soccer division.

Proceeds from the inaugural event in 2003 were used to promote “Play Soccer Make Peace,” an international nonprofit project that puts on soccer tournaments in numerous countries, including Nigeria, Liberia and a 16-team event in the Gaza Strip last fall.

In Friday’s other game, Once Caldas tied Lyon 1-1. And yesterday, Boca Juniors and Tottenham Hotspur fought to a 2-2 tie, followed by Mamelodi Sundowns’ 1-0 win over Real Sociedad. Godfrey Sapula scored the only goal for Sundowns in the 59th minute.

PSV is again led by Guus Hiddink, who guided the South Korean national team to the semifinals of the 2002 World Cup. But the Dutch giants return to the Peace Cup without one of their key stars from 2003, Park Ji Sung, who recently signed a four-year, $7million deal to play with Manchester United. The 24-year-old attacking midfielder will be the first Korean to play in the English Premier League.

Also missing from PSV’s lineup is DaMarcus Beasley, who has been playing for the U.S. national team in the CONCACAF Gold Cup and could not make the Asia trip.

Beasley joined PSV last year from the Chicago Fire and has been a key player, helping the team reach the semifinals of the 2005 Champions League.

“I’ve moved to a better league where I can prove myself at a higher level,” Beasley said.

The Peace Cup is organized by the Sun Moon Soccer Foundation, which was founded by Rev. Sun Myung Moon.