South Korea in semis
Asia's top-ranked field hockey team, South Korea, virtually sealed their place in the Asia Cup semifinals with a closely fought 3-2 win over Japan in a Group A match in Malaysia on Monday.
Korea scored their three goals in the first half and were forced into deep defence in the second half to keep the Japanese at bay.
The Koreans are tagged as favourites to make the final on Saturday and will play lowly Bangladesh Tuesday in the last pool match.
World number five Korea are far too strong for the 34th-ranked Bangladesh and should take maximum points.
The other semi-final team from the pool will come from the winner of the Malaysia and Japan match on Tuesday.
The Malaysians had little trouble defeating Bangladesh 7-1 in the second match of the day.
The Korea-Japan match saw some fast-paced action with both teams using speed as their main weapon.
The Koreans went into attack from the start and took the lead in the 12th minute through a penalty corner drag flick taken by Jin Kyun-min.
Eight minutes later the Japanese were back on level terms with a penalty corner goal scored by Kei Kawakami.
But the Koreans continued to press hard and earned two penalty strokes in the 22nd and 35th minutes following a penalty corner execution.
Lee Nam-yong converted both the strokes to give his team a 3-1 lead.
The second half saw a charged-up Japan and they had the Koreans back peddling time and again.
In the 53rd Japan earned their fifth penalty corner and Takayasu Mizawa had all the time to place a low flick on goalkeeper Lee Myung-ho's right.
But despite their valiant efforts the Japanese failed to get further goals and will now have to beat Malaysia to secure their berth.
South Korean coach Cho Myung-jun said that it was a close match and they did not expect such a fight back from the Japanese.
"We missed our experienced players for this game. We are quite safe for the semi-finals but we have to ensure we take full points from Bangladesh.
"Japan is strong too and matches between our teams have been quite tight. It was no different today. We are happy to have collected full points," he said.
Japan team manager Yamanaka Manabu was disappointed with the result but felt that it was a fair reflection of the way the match went.
"Our strategy was to defend in the first half and then go on the attack in the second. It is just that we were not able to convert our chances well.
"Our back is against the wall as we need nothing less than a win tomorrow. But I do feel confident we can win," he said.
The Koreans have four points while the Japanese have three. Host Malaysia also has four points and a draw with Japan will suffice for them to make the semis.
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