MONCHENGLADBACH (Germany), Sept 7: Japan had no answer to Pakistan's attacking play as they fell to a 4-0 thrashing at the World Cup hockey on Thursday. A penalty corner conversion by Sohail Abbas and a field goal to Rehan Butt in the first twelve minutes of the match allowed Pakistan to slip into cruise control against less skilful opposition.

Sohail added a penalty corner conversion and Shakeel Abbasi a field goal in the last five minutes as Japan wilted under Pakistan's pressure.

Shahnaz Sheikh, Pakistan's coach, is optimistic Pakistan can carry on from their good start.

“When Pakistan starts well in a tournament it is likely Pakistan will do well in the tournament,” Shahnaz said.

“I was impressed with the improvement in Pakistan to beat Japan 4-0 after we beat them 4-2 in the Asian Cup,” Sheikh added.

“Our young team was nervous today as it is a big game for us but the experience will mean we can get better as the tournament progresses,” said Akira Takahashi, Japan's coach.

Earlier in the day, India's nightmare start to the tournament continued with a 3-2 loss to England.

The Asians had already lost by the same score to Germany in their opening match on Wednesday.

India actually took the lead in the first half and went in a goal to the good at the break after England had failed to convert two penalty strokes.

“We played our game and not the occasion and did that even though we missed the two penalty strokes,” said Jason Lee, England's coach.

India took heart from England's first miss and scored first as Tushar Khandker set up Shivendra Singh for an easy tap-in.

But despite that bright start, India succumbed to an English fight-back after the break.

“We did not play hard enough and made too many errors in the midfield link by giving the ball away to England,” said Vasudevan Baskaran, India's coach.

England attacked in the second half, earning six penalty corners with James Tindell converting the fourth and Simon Mantell converting the fifth as Gowdalli Hariprasad served a six minute suspension.

Mantell scored another before England tried to sit on their two-goal cushion.

But in the last five minutes they conceded three penalty corners with Dilip Tirkey converting one with a drive into the left pocket of goal.

Two losses from two matches make it most unlikely India can make the semi-finals from here, with matches against the Netherlands and Korea still to come.

Earlier, on Wednesday, South Korea stunned favourites the Netherlands 3-2, while New Zealand crushed Argentina 3-0 in the only match of Pool A.

“We expected an equal game but we did not expect to win,” said South Korea coach Sung Cho. “We will do our best each game to reach the semi-finals.”

The Netherlands coach Roelant Oltmans said: “We did not start the way we wanted to start and we were surprised with Korea scoring twice from the first two times into our circle.“I was disappointed we could not keep up the standard at which we played in the first twenty minutes of the second half when we scored twice and we lost the match in the last fifteen minutes when Korea scored again.”

South Korea got into the faces of Netherlands in the first half, attacking relentlessly, punishing defensive errors and taking a 2-0 lead into the break with two field goals to Hyo Sik You.

In the second half Ronald Brouwer drove in a field goal off a perfect pass from Teun de Nooijer and Taeke Taekema converted Netherlands third penalty corner to set up a draw.

Nam Lee broke the deadlock with a deflection on a free hit from outside the circle to take the lead 3-2 and South Korea kept possession in the last 10 minutes to hold on to the win.

New Zealand's Hayden Shaw overpowered Argentina with two first half penalty corner conversions in New Zealand's 3-0 win. Simon Childs' field goal three minutes into the second half sealed Argentina's fate.

Friday’s fixtures (all times in PST):