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Pakistan 4-1 in warm-up hockey |
8/7/2008 |
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Striker Woon Koon Yeo struck a brace as Pakistan suffered a blow ahead of Beijing Olympics Hockey Tournament when they suffered a 4-1 defeat at the hands of South Korea in a warm-up match at Olympic Green Hockey Stadium here on Wednesday.
Pakistan was enjoying 1-0 advantage at the breather but Koreans produced a sterling and attacking display in the second session to rout their opponents with a series of counter-attacks.
Agile and swift Woon Koon baged a pair of goals in space of mere three minutes after Pakistan half-back Muhammad Saqlain went off the ground following collision with a Korean attacker. Saqlain was profusely bleeding from the nose as physio Faiz-ur-Rehman took him off the field and his departure created a void in the defence which Korean fully exploited.
Pakistan definitely enjoyed the upper hand in the first session. Forwards Waqas Sharif, Rehan Butt and Shakeel Abbasi created some solid moves. Vice- Captain Muhammad Imran wasted the penalty corners in 11th and 16th minutes as his drag-flick went wide off the target.
Shakeel Abbasi missed a sitter from a close range a few minute later after he got a stray at top of the circle but his try went wide.
Imran’s third short corner attempt was blocked in the 23rd minute by the Korean goalie. Nevertheless, Pakistan was finally rewarded for their effort, when Imran’s carpet drive beat the Korean goalkeeper.
However, the second half belonged to Korea after Saqlain went out through injury and talented forward Waqas Sharif received a direct blow on the left ankle on a penalty corner.
Youn Sung Hoon levelled the terms ten minutes into the second half through a lovely flick which beat custodian Nasir Ahmed and midway through the session Kim Young Beng put them 2-1 ahead.
However, two late snap goals by Woon Kon totally took the match away from Pakistan. They applied pressure by forcing three short corners but the Korean custodian thwarted all these solid attempts.
Pakistan mustered seven penalty corners to Korea’s five.
Pakistan rested Salman Akbar while fullback Imran Warsi missed action as bandage was wrapped around his right hand elbow.
Warm-up match was not held without players wearing any shirt number nor was the name distributed by the Olympic Game organisers.
Interestingly the match was supervised by Korea Manager and Pakistan coach Naveed Alam.
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