Muscat, Oct 20 - Shota Yamada and Waturu Matsumoto were on target as Japan posted a 2-0 win against South Korea in an evenly-fought Asian Champions Trophy match in Muscat on Saturday. Japan’s penalty corner specialist Yamada, who scored the first goal, was adjudged as the man of the match. At the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex, Yamada converted a penalty corner in the 18th minute after a barren first quarter to put Japan 1-0 up. At a time when the Koreans were desperately trying for an equaliser, Matsumoto destroyed their hopes through a fine field goal in the 51st minute to seal Japan’s first win of the tournament.
With the win, Japan also earned their first three points, while South Korea have no points after losing both their matches. The defeat also dented their hopes of a semifinal qualification. Both the teams were looking for their first win in the six-nation tournament after the Jakarta Asian Games 2018 winners Japan suffered an opening 3-0 defeat against Malaysia and South Korea went down against Pakistan 3-1. South Korea came close to a goal towards the end of first quarter with their striker coming one-to-one with the Japan goalkeeper Takashi Yoshikawa but failed to turn it in. Japan were not able to take advantage of two penalty corners in the 38th minute as a valiant South Korean defence put it away.
South Korea tried hard for an equaliser in the third quarter and towards the end of the quarter managed to get into Japanese penalty box. However, the on-rushing Korean player was unable to hit the goal. In a counter-attack from that move, Japan tried to push ahead but the striker could not find any company from his team-mates and his long shot did not cause any danger for the Koreans. In the 48th minute, South Korea earned back-to-back penalty corners but failed again to reap any benefits. In the final quarter, Matsumoto’s goal ended Korean hopes though they had pushed hard for a goal with the time running out.
Anuroop Athiparambath
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