South Korea men’s hockey has crashed out of the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games in the quarter-finals.
South Korea lost 3-5 to India in the men’s hockey semi-final of the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games at the Archer Canal Sports Park in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China on Thursday.
The Koreans, who are attempting to return to the Asian Games after a 17-year absence since the 2006 Doha Games, fell to 3-4.
The third-place game will be played on 6 June against China. Korea lost 2-3 against China in the group stage of the tournament.
The Korean men’s hockey team failed to win a medal at the last Asian Games in Jakarta-Palembang 2018, finishing fifth.
With the loss, Korea did not qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, which will be awarded to the winner of the tournament.
They will have to wait until the final qualifying round in January 2024 to qualify again.
South Korea, ranked 12th by the International Ice Hockey Federation (FIH), got off to a poor start in the first quarter against third-ranked India.
India are currently the highest-ranked Asian nation in the world and are coming into the tournament as the strongest gold medal favourites.
After India’s Hardik Singh opened the scoring five minutes into the match, Mandeep Singh made it 2-0 in the 11th minute of the first quarter.
Upadhyay Kumar added another goal just before the end of the first quarter to make it 3-0.
After being outplayed in the first quarter, Korea fought back in the second quarter.
Two minutes into the second quarter, Jung Man-jae (Incheon City Sports Association) pulled one back with a promising play in a penalty corner situation, and at five minutes into the second quarter, Jung scored again with a field goal to cut the deficit to 2-3.
However, at the 9th minute of the second quarter, Korea conceded a goal from a penalty corner, ending the first half at 2-4.
In the third quarter, Korea pulled back to within one goal.
At the 12th minute of the third quarter, Jang Jong-hyun’s (Seongnam City Hall) shot from the penalty corner was redirected by Jung Man-jae in the middle of the circle to give Korea a chance to equalise.
From the beginning of the fourth quarter, Korea went on a total offensive to overcome the one-goal deficit, but no goals were scored and the game went in India’s favour as they conceded another goal with six minutes left in the fourth quarter to make it 3-5. 파워볼분석