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| September 27, 2003 | Saturday | Rajab 29, 1424 |
Pakistan and India to battle for glory
India 4 South Korea 2
Pakistan 3 Japan 1
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 26: Pakistan played one of their worst matches in the 6th Asia Cup but did enough to beat semifinal opponents Japan 3-1 and qualify for Sunday’s final against rivals India.
Pakistan will start as favourites having beaten the Indians 4-2 in a preliminary round match on Wednesday.
Pakistan had been expected to breeze through to the final, but credit must go to Japan who made them fight hard for the win.
Shabbir Hussain put Pakistan 1-0 up in the 26th minute but the avalanche of goals did not materialize.
Japan, who were fast on the break deservingly got the equalizer in the 39th minute through Ryuji Furusato.
Their joy was, however, shortlived as Sohail Abass regained Pakistan’s lead two minutes later through a penalty corner.
Skipper Mohammad Nadeem made sure of the win by scoring off another penalty corner in the 58th minute.
“The players made too many mistakes when in possession and this made things difficult,” said Pakistan coach Tahir Zaman.
“Our penalty corners were not as effective as I wanted them to be and though we scored from two, we ought to have done better.”
India defeated defending champions South Korea 4-2 in a thrilling match.
But it was not an easy win for India who came from one goal down to win the game.
The Koreans played a defensive game, letting the Indians surge forward and then launching their own counter-attacks, and in the 23rd minute this strategy almost paid off when Lim Jung Woo deflected a free hit taken by skipper Kim Jung Chul only to be denied by the outstretched leg of Indian keeper Devesh Chauhan.
India’s best chance to open the scoring came two minutes later when Dhanraj Pillay went on a solo run well within his own half before releasing the ball to Prabhjot Singh who played a delightful ball to Deepak Thakur.
But Deepak, with only the Korean keeper Ko Dong Sik to beat, hit the ball wide of the mark.
Korea broke the deadlock four minutes into the second half when Lee Jung Seon beat the Indian backline and keeper and slipped a pass to You Hyo Sik who had the easiest of tasks to slot it into an empty goal.
Gagan Ajit Singh continued his dismal performance by missing two sitters in the 41st and 43rd minutes.
Sandeep Michael provided India with the equalizer when he sneaked in behind the Korean defence and coolly side-stepped the Korean keeper to score in the 53rd minute.
The goal energized India and their persistence paid off when Prabhjot Singh put them ahead in the 67th minute.
Gagan scored India’s third goal two minutes later and though Korea reduced the deficit through Lee Jung Seon, Deepak Thakur ensured an emphatic win by scoring in the dying seconds of the match.
China, thanks to goals by Lup Fang Ming (24th minute), Hu Liang (54th minute) defeated Hong Kong and qualified for the 5/6 placing match against Malaysia who downed Bangladesh 5-0 to qualify for the 5th and 6th-place match Saturday.
The scorers for Malaysia were Mohd Rodhanizam Mat Radzi, Azlan Misron, Mohd Amin Rahim, S. Kuhan and Keevan Raj.
Results: Classification matches
Malaysia 5 Bangladesh 0
Chine 2 Hong Kong 0
—AFP
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