The Asia Cup's Pool A concluded the pool stage today with Pakistan crushing Chinese-Taipei 13-0 and Malaysia wrestling down Japan 4-2. Pakistan and Malaysia thus advance into Friday's semi-finals, while Japan and Chinese-Taipei move into the lower half classification matches.
Hockey superpowers India and Pakistan have put down the strongest showings so far at the men's Asia Cup being played in Ipoh, Malaysia this week. The winner of the tournament qualifies directly for the Rabobank Hockey World Cup, to be played in The Hague next year in June.
Pool B was dominated by Pakistan who breezed through to the semi-finals conceding only a single goal against while scoring 24. A 7-0 win against Japan on the opening day was followed by a more difficult 4-1 success against the Malaysian hosts before the Greenshirts wrapped up their pool stage play with a hefty 13-0 defeat of the team from Chinese-Taipei.
Behind them, Malaysia finished Pool A in second place thanks to a hard-fought win against the Japanese in their last pool clash. Malaysia turned around the match after the Samurai had taken a 2-0 lead in the first eight minutes of the match. They will now face the pool winner of Pool B, to be determined tomorrow. Japan head into the 5th to 8th place play-offs, together with Chinese-Taipei.
Tomorrow, India are in the best position to top Pool B which they share with Korea, Bangladesh and Oman. After an 8-0 win against Oman on the opening day and a world ranking-defying victory against Korea, India face Bangladesh in their last pool stage clash tomorrow. The second Pool B semi-finalist will be decided when Oman take on Korea to battle it out for progression into the semi-finals, with Korea needing a draw while Oman have to win.
Saturday 24 August 2013
Pool B: India - Oman 8-0 (4-0)
Pool A: Pakistan - Japan 7-0 (6-0)
Pool A: Malaysia - Chinese-Taipei 10-2 (4-1)
Sunday 25 August 2013
Pool B: Korea - Bangladesh 9-0 (4-0)
Pool A: Japan - Chinese-Taipei 5-1 (1-1)
Pool A: Pakistan - Malaysia 4-1 (1-1)
Monday 26 August 2013
Pool B: Bangladesh - Oman 2-4 (0-1)
Pool B: India - Korea 2-0 (1-0)
Tuesday 27 August 2013
Pool A: Pakistan - Chinese-Taipei 13-0 (3-0)
Pool A: Japan - Malaysia 2-4 (2-2)
Wednesday 28 August 2013
Pool B: Korea - Oman
Pool B: India - Bangladesh
Friday 30 August 2013
15:00 Placement 5-8: 3rd Pool A - 4th Pool B
17:15 Placement 5-8: 3rd Pool B - 4th Pool A
19:30 Semi-final: 1st Pool A - 2nd Pool B
21:45 Semi-final: 1st Pool B - 2nd Pool A
Saturday 31 August 2013
17:30 Placement 7-8
20:00 Placement 5-6
Sunday 1 September 2013
17:30 Bronze medal match
20:00 Final
