In the 37th minute, just one minute after an Overmars goal had been ruled off-side, Cocu gave the Dutch the lead, working the ball along just outside the box and unleashing a thundering left-foot shot.

Overmars made it two four minutes later when Wim Jonk fed him, he rounded his marker Choi Sung-Yong and fired home an unstoppable shot.

But the biggest cheer from the massed orange ranks was reserved for a goal from Dennis Bergkamp. The Dutch striker, starting his first match in seven weeks, made his mark in the 71stminute as he took an Aron Winter pass, slipped between two Korean defenders and slotted the ball in.

Five minutes later, he could have had a second. Eventually, he was replaced by Van Hooijdonk.

In almost his first touch of the game, Van Hooijdonk headed in from an Overmars cross. Ronald de Boer's right-footed strike in the 83rd minute was the icing on the cake.

Until the end, South Korea appeared far from overawed against the group favourites and created three or four chances contrary to the predictions of Dutch coach Guus Hiddink, the Koreans played with two forwards, not one, and occasionally looked dangerous in the first half. ``We had many goals and it is good to know you don't have to depend on just one player to score goals,'' said Hiddink. ``Our first goal by Cocu was an important one. It broke the impasse, and the other players then began scoring.''

Hiddink's starting lineup raised a few eyebrows, with an unexpected shuffling of positions that saw Cocu promoted to striker from mid-field,Ronald de Boer shifting to right-wing and the addition of mid-fielders Edgar Davids and Jonk.

But the role swapping hardly appeared to ruffle the squad, as the team went on to record the biggest score of the tournament, and further whittle down South Korea's hopes for a first win in five World Cup appearances.

``Our strength is that we have 22 very good players, all very talented with many qualities,'' said captain Frank de Boer, brother to Ronald.

Cocu was only promoted to the striker's role after Patrick Kluivert's was suspended for two matches for elbowing Lorenzo Staelens during the Dutch team's 0-0 draw with Belgium.

``It was the first time in two and a half years that I played this position,'' said Cocu.``It was a big change but we have so much talent on our team I was just happy to be playing all the time. At first, I underestimated what I had to do,'' said Cocu.

``With Bergkamp not at the top of his physical level, I had to work harder. I had to for the team, as the more time Bergkamp spentin the pitch, the more chances we had. I suffered for it but in the end it paid off,'' added Cocu.

``At first we had difficulty scoring but we played well,'' said Bergkamp, who is moving to Barcelona from PSV Eindhoven next season.

``In the end the South Koreans went down mentally and that was the difference.''

Indeed, as the South Koreans appeared to give way under pressure, most of the second-half action took place in front of Kim Byong-Ji's net.

``It was very tense in the second half and I was under a lot of pressure,'' said the South Korean netminder. ``Of course, as a goalkeeper I'm always ready to stop goals, but it was still a lot of hard work and quite stressful.''