In Saturday’s two big decider games, Malaysia defeated Japan and India slipped past China to join the pool winners Pakistan and Korea in the top four. Pakistan and Korea both recorded another win, against Oman and Bangladesh respectively, and both finish the pool round with an impressive record of four wins in four matches, while conceding only one goal each.
The first decision over the semi-finals fell when Malaysia met Japan. Japan was already at a disadvantage, as they had to win, while Malaysia only needed a draw, and less than two minutes into the match, Firhan Ashari raised the bar further with an early goal. Still in the first quarter, Japan drew level but soon after, Malaysia’s man of the match Razie Abd Rahim restored the lead from a penalty corner. Malaysia scored two more, and overall won on impressive efficiency, scoring four goals from seven opportunities while Japan had eleven shots that resulted in only one goal. With the win, Malaysia became semi-finalists, while Japan were confined to the match for 5th/6th place.
India had more difficulty on their path into the semi-finals, doing battle with a fierce Chinese side that kept the match open well into the second half. Similar to Japan before them, China failed through a lack of efficiency, creating a similar number of opportunities to India but failing to make use of any of them while India scored two goals. Coach Cui Yingbiao showed himself especially frustrated with the penalty corner conversion rate, pointing out that the team had only converted one penalty corner in three matches. India’s coach Terry Walsh said that while he was of course happy with reaching the semi-finals, he was not entirely happy with the performance of his team, citing a lack of fluidity, good decision-making and cohesion as the main aspects holding the team back.
Previously, at the start of the day, Pakistan had thrashed Oman. Despite the difference in world ranking, the contrast was starker today than it should have been, as Pakistan played an energetic but composed game, while Oman couldn’t quite live up to the performances they had previously shown in the competition. Pakistan’s head coach Sheikh Shahnaz assured after the match that he was happy with his team’s buildup towards the semi-finals and not everything had been disclosed yet. In stark contrast, Omani coach Oliver Kurtz was openly critical of his team, saying that today’s performance had been a step back and that there had been an utter lack of organisation and discipline.
In the final match of the day, Korea left Bangladesh without a chance. The home team first scored in the fourth minute and marched on from there without ever looking back, not least because Bangladesh struggled with individual mistakes as well as issues of discipline. In the end, Korea topped their pool, while Bangladesh head into the match for 7th place against Oman, a match which head coach Alam Naveed suggested as “like a final for us, it is our big game”.
In Tuesday’s semi-finals, Pakistan will thus face Malaysia, while Korea take on India. Also on Tuesday, Bangladesh and Oman play for 7th place, while on Monday, Singapore and Sri Lanka will play for 9th place, and on Thursday, Japan will face China for 5th place.
Results
Saturday, 27 September 2014 – Men
Oman – Pakistan 0-8 (0-4)
Japan – Malaysia 1-4 (1-2)
India – China 2-0 (0-0)
Korea – Bangladesh 7-0 (4-0)
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