Pakistan’s hopes of qualifying for the 2014 Hockey World Cup suffered a major blow after the Greenshirts were edged out 4-3 by an electrifying Korean side in the quarterfinal of the World Hockey League (WHL).

Muhammad Imran’s side, who needed to finish in the top three in the WHL to qualify for the World Cup next year, must now win the upcoming Asia Cup to make the trip to the Netherlands, where hockey’s biggest event will be staged.

The quarterfinal started in great fashion for Imran’s side as they dominated possession and managed to get on the board as early as the fifth minute through a magical field goal by Muhammad Waqas. Muhammad Tousiq doubled Pakistan’s lead in the 16th minute to leave the Koreans gasping for air. And it wasn’t until the closing minutes of the first-half that they hit back through Kang Moon Kweon’s low penalty corner.

Inspired by Kang again, the Koreans turned it around right away in the second-half to make it 2-2 but a sloppy effort in their own D gave Pakistan a penalty stroke and an easy chance to get back into the lead. Shakeel Abbasi held his nerve to complete an easy goal, fired in the top right.

From there onwards it was all Korea and it seemed their belligerent offensive left Imran’s side well and truly baffled. First, Nam Hyun Woo scored off a penalty corner in the 43rd minute before Kim Young Jin scored a field goal five minutes later. Losing the advantage after being two goals up clearly seemed to shake the spirit of the Pakistanis and it must have been playing on the mind of Abbasi. The veteran striker fired in his penalty to the left of Korean Lee Myung Ho but the alert keeper was in a good position to stop the shot.

While that passage of play in the 53rd minute was probably the decisive moment of the match, Pakistan had several penalty corner opportunities after it which they failed to make use of.

Although the defeat will leave Pakistan dejected, their performance in the WHL was a marked improvement from their showing at this year’s Azlan Shah Cup where they finished 5th. They tied with Malaysia and England and thumped lowly South Africa 6-2 but were often found wanting in front of goal which proved to be their undoing in against Korea.