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| March 5, 2002 | Tuesday | Zilhaj 20, 1422 |
Australia first to reach World Cup semifinal
KUALA LUMPUR, March 4: Australia maintained their unbeaten run Monday becoming the first side to advance to the semifinals of the 10th World Cup hockey tournament with a 4-2 victory over South Korea at the National Stadium.
The Aussies, winners of the World Cup in 1986, kept their top position in the group with a total of 18 points while South Korea were left with 15 in second place. With Malaysia, moving up to third after beating Cuba earlier in the day, the hosts still have an outside chance of making the grade from Pool B if they beat Poland by eight goals Tuesday and also hope that South Korea lose to England. A draw for South Korea would be enough to send them through.
Australia looked well in control after Scott Webster opened the scoring for them eight minutes into the game and then Troy Elder made it 2-0 from a 14th minute penalty corner to put Korea, the 2000 Olympic finalists, briefly on the back foot.
However, South Koreans regrouped and had the score-line narrowed, Seung-Tae Song capitalizing on a goal-mouth scramble in the 29th minute of play. But Australia, among the front-runners to win the World Cup a second time, were in the driving seat again when they were awarded a penalty stroke on the 41st minute for an infringement by a rival defender in the semi-circle. Jeremey Hiskins stepped in to take it, and he made no mistake making the score 3-1.
Australia continued to mount pressure and got their fourth goal, through a fine field effort from Hiskins again before South Korea managed to give the score-line some respectability with Jung-Seon Lee right on target off a 62nd minute penalty corner.
Japan harmed England’s chances of finishing among the top eight sending the 1986 runners-up crashing to a 2-1 defeat. The Japanese victory, coming through first half goals from captain Yamahori Takahiko, was their second of the tournament and their points total in Group B now stands at seven with a match against Cuba Tuesday remaining.
England, pinned down in the first half, were two goals down by the 24th minute but fought back to narrow the deficit on the 65th from a penalty corner taken by Dave Mathews.
The Englishmen would now have to beat South Korea in the last group match to avoid finishing the pool rankings in fifth place behind Malaysia and Japan.
England found it difficult to penetrate the Japanese defence and it was no surprise then when Japan’s Yahamori scored off a pass from Kenichi Katayama with 18 minutes gone. Their second goal was a short corner strike, again from the same player.
The four short corners that England earned in the first half could not be converted as goalkeeper Jun Takahashi stood like a rock in the way. With three more penalty corners coming their way in the second session, England eventually managed to score from their last set-piece. Japan, then defended well to make sure their rivals dropped three points.
English coach Malcolm Wood said he was hugely disappointed with how his team fared. “We went to sleep a couple of times.” He believed that the structure of their defence was fine but there were individual mistakes.
The Japanese manager said that their strategy was to go behind the English defence. “It was easier than what we had thought.”
In another match, hosts Malaysia defeated new-comers Cuba 4-2 for an exciting victory as they moved up to third place. As events unfolded, it were the Cubans who struck first as early as the 9th minute Garcia Rodriguez scoring in field play while Chairal Anwar quickly wiped that from a 11th minute short corner.
Cuba, without a win in this tournament, however snatched the lead again soon afterwards, through Hernandez Rodrigeuz only for Malaysia to bounce back in the 26th minute, Muhammad Fairuz Ramly finding himself well placed to score.
Cheered on by a big crowd, the home team gained the edge with a goal for K. Shanmuganathan six minutes before the break for a 3-2 half-time lead. The Malaysian showing more urgency strengthened their advantage further when Shanmuganathan put in his second goal of the match on the 40th minute.
India, who sacked their coach Cedric D’Souza Saturday, collected their second successive victory under assistant coach C R. Kumar against Poland, winning 4-1 on Pitch No. 2.
The Indians, out of semifinal reckoning following a string of defeats that had led to D’Souza’s sacking, were 1-0 up in the 5th minute, Daljit Singh striking home a field goal. Tomasz Choczaj pulled a goal back on the 23rd.
A penalty stroke, 10 minutes later, converted by Baljit Singh Dhillon gave the Indians a timely cushion. However, for Poland who had just one victory from five games going India, who had a particularly good first half, did not look impressive in the second and were prevented from scoring for more than 30 minutes before their exciting forward Dhanraj Pillay found the net two minutes from time.
Although India won, it were the Poles who had more short corners, three in each half while the 1975 champions had just one. India with a total of seven points after playing six matches are in fifth place in the pool. They are up against mighty Australia Tuesday.
England 1 Japan 2
Malaysia 4 Cuba 2
Poland 1 India 4
Australia 4 South Korea 2
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