| Korea enter Asia Cup final
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September 8, 2007
South Korea 2 Malaysia 1
Asian Games Champions South Korea took advantage of a defensive Malaysian side to carve out a 2-1 victory and enter the Asia Cup final here on Saturday. Malaysia did their best to take the attack to the Korean half but once they scored the equalizer, they surprisingly fell back and let the Asian Games champions dominate. The score-line could have stretched but for the heroics of Malaysian goalkeeper Kumar Subremamaniam, who was awarded the man-of-the-match. Korea had seven penalty corners and couldn’t score from any of them. Korea opened the match with a penalty corner but the Malaysian goalkeeper came out and took it on the pads. The lead for Korea came in the 9th minute. Seo Jong Ho’s cross into the striking circle was deflected into the Malaysian goal by Oh Dae Keun. Malaysia wasted a penalty corner opportunity when Zulklifli shot straight at the Korean goalkeeper. Ismail Abu had a golden chance after going past two defenders but his reverse hit missed the ball. At the break, Korea led 1-0.
Immediately after the break, Tajuddin raced into the Malaysian half and sent a cross to Azlon Misron who deflected into the Korean goalkeeper. At 1-1, it was anybody’s game. But Malaysia surprisingly defended and refused to open up the attacks for the frontline players. Korea had the space to build and they came close with four penalty corners. Korea took advantage of a mistake from Malaysia as Yoon Sung Hoon latched onto a miss-pass, ran across from the left flank and sent the ball past an advancing Malaysian goalkeeper. There was no back-up for the goalkeeper as no defender was on the line, backing up the goalkeeper. Korea had a set-back when Kang Seong Jung was shown the yellow card. With Korea down to ten men, Malaysia should have taken advantage but they couldn’t convert two penalty corners and a clutch of chances that came in the last five minutes.
Score Sheet:
Oh Dae Keun (9th, FG) 1-0
Azlon Misron (37th, FG) 1-1
Yoon Sung Hoon (63rd, FG) 2-1
| Schedule |
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Final Standings :
1. India
2. S Korea
3. Malaysia
4. Japan
5. China
6. Pakistan
7. Bangladesh
8. Hong Kong
9. Sri Lanka
10. Singapore
11. Thailand
Sunday's Matches  |
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| TEAM A | TEAM B | Playoff | TIME | RESULT | |||
| S Lanka | SPore | 9/10 | 08:00 | 6-0 | |||
| Ban | HKG | 7/8 | 07:00 | 3-1 | |||
| China | Pak | 5/6 | 09:30 | 3-2 | |||
| Malaysia | Japan | 3/4 | 16:00 | 5-3 | |||
| India | S Korea | 1/2 | 18:30 | 7-2 | |||
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Saturday's Matches |
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| TEAM A | v | TEAM B | TIME | RESULT | |||
| Singapore | v | Thailand | 08:00 | 4-0 | |||
| Pak | v | Ban | 07:00 | 10-0 | |||
| China | v | HongKong | 09:30 | 6-1 | |||
| S Korea | v | Malaysia | 17:00 | 2-1 | |||
| India | v | Japan | 19:30 | 4-1 | |||
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SCORE TABLE |
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| POOL A | |||||||
| TEAM | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | PTS |
| Malaysia SF | 4 | 3 | 1 | 26 | 4 | 10 | |
| Japan SF | 4 | 3 | 1 | 18 | 4 | 9 | |
| Pakistan | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 7 | 7 |
| Hong Kong | 4 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 28 | 3 | |
| Singapore | 4 | 4 | 2 | 27 | 0 | ||
| POOL B | |||||||
| TEAM | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | PTS |
| India SF | 5 | 5 | 46 | 2 | 15 | ||
| S Korea SF | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 41 | 8 | 10 |
| China | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 32 | 6 | 10 |
| Bangladesh | 5 | 2 | 3 | 16 | 22 | 6 | |
| Sri Lanka | 5 | 1 | 4 | 15 | 46 | 3 | |
| Thailand | 5 | 5 | 1 | 67 | 0 | ||
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 A team should be ready to play anyone. Of course, more |
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