Ipoh (Malaysia): South Korea thrashed much-fancied Pakistan 4-0 to register their first win in four matches at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament on Monday. Setting a brisk pace, the South Koreans benefited from Pakistan's erratic strikers, who missed chances galore in the first half.
Nam Hyun-Woo, who converted two penalty corners for the Koreans, opened the scoring in the 18th minute on their second penalty corner.
Pakistan came back strongly with nice field work, but Muhammad Waqas pushed a shot wide after getting a cross in front of an open goal.
Pakistan skipper Sohail Abbas then came close to equalising from their first penalty corner when his shot hit the edge of goalkeeper Lee Myung-Ho's pads and deflected on to the post before rebounding into play.
Abbas had an off day in office today as he failed to penetrate the Korean defence on all four penalty corners Pakistan earned in the game.
Striker Shafqat Rasool then failed to establish control of a diagonal ball inside the circle with an open goal in front.
Nam again shot on target in the 44th minute to make it 2-0 for South Korea.
As Pakistan's game wilted under pressure, You Hyo-Sik increased the lead in the 55th minute after getting a through pass inside the circle.
Hyun Hye-Sung then rounded off South Korea's scoring in the 62nd minute from a diagonal pass.
Down 0-4, Pakistan pressed hard and managed to earn two late penalty corners late in the game but on both the occasion Abbas failed to produce the desired the result.
In spite of the embarrassing defeat, Pakistan coach Khwaja Junaid defended his team.
"It's disappointing, but we managed to match the energy levels of the Koreans and generated several chances. However, we failed to score goals. This is a grey area we need to work on," Junaid said.
"Like in the game against New Zealand, we conceded goals by individual mistakes," he said. "We were unlucky to miss sitters. We cannot survive if we keep doing that in international hockey," he added.
South Korea now have four points from four games, while Pakistan have three from as many matches.
New Zealand lead the table with nine points from three games.
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