On the last day of women’s pool play in the women’s competition of the Asian Games Incheon 2014, Japan and India joined China and Korea in the semi-finals. China defeated Thailand and Korea thrashed Hong Kong to each finish top of their group.
Japan started off the day against Kazakhstan. It was a direct battle for progression into the semi-finals, but Japan was really expected to win, based on world rankings as well as performances in this event so far. The Sakura fulfilled the expectations and dominated the proceedings from start to finish, winning by eight goals which included a hat-trick from Mazuki Arai. The win confirmed Japan as a semi-finalist, joining China and Korea at that stage.
China followed suit with a clear win over Thailand to ensure they would progress as the top team from Pool A, pitting them against Japan. While Thailand were never able to even come close to threatening China, the 5-0 scoreline is still rather favourable for a Thai team who are ranked 53rd in the world, an astonishing 48 ranks below China. Thailand played above their ranking in this match, and in the event, but Chinese coach You Baodong also conceded that his players didn’t play very well today, that they weren’t fully concentrated in the game. He also suggested that they hadn’t played at 100% so far at all. “What we’ve done so far, has been only preparation for the next two matches, those are the important ones. We haven’t had big goal differences, but we have been improving and the next matches will show that.”
Next up were India and Malaysia with another direct battle for a semi-final place which was expected to be much closer than the encounter between Japan and Kazakhstan earlier. In the end however, India were fairly dominant. Rani set the Eves on the path to victory with a fantastic reverse stick goal in the fourth minute, and India never looked back, scoring three more in the first half. Malaysia struggled to emulate their good performances from prior matches and having fallen behind early, they never managed to catch up with their Indian opponents.
Korea and Hong Kong wrapped up the day with the most one-sided clash of the day. The home team scored eight goals from 38 shots on goal, while not allowing Hong Kong to take one shot, nor in fact even a circle penetration, and holding three quarters of ball possession. This win confirmed that Korea finished the pool phase at the top of their pool and set them up for a semi-final against India.
In Monday’s semi-finals, China will thus face Japan, while Korea take on India. Also on Monday, Thailand and Hong Kong will play for 7th, while Malaysia and Kazakhstan play for 5th place on Wednesday.
Results
Friday, 26 September 2014 – Women
Kazakhstan – Japan 0-8 (0-6)
China – Thailand 5-0 (4-0)
Malaysia – India 1-6 (0-4)
Korea – Hong Kong 8-0 (5-0)
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