New Zealand regained some form of pride after bouncing back from the nightmarish 4-6 defeat against host Malaysia on Monday night, to seal a respectable 4-1 victory over South Korea in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh tonight.
The match was initially interrupted by a heavy downpour after one minute and 15 seconds of proceedings in the first quarter. It resumed after a wait of one hour.
The Black Sticks, who won the tournament in 2012 and 2015, grabbed a 3-0 lead in the first half with goals from Gorge Baker (4th minute), Jonty Elmes (18th minute) and Jake Smith’s 23rd minute penalty stroke conversion.
Defender Sim Jaewon gave hope of a Korea comeback by converting a penalty corner in the 39th minute. The Kiwis piled the pressure on the Koreans and earned their second penalty corner in the 55th minute and Isaac Houlbrooke converted to give his side a 4-1 lead.
New Zealand, who play Pakistan in their last pool match on Friday, amassed six points from four matches and are placed fourth in the table standings – four points behind Pakistan (10 points), Japan (7 points) and Malaysia (6) while the Canadians have yet to win a match.
NEW ZEALAND: GREG NICOL (COACH)
“It was a long game. We started like 3 hours ago. I think we put a hard priority on adapting the weather which we are preparing for Paris Olympics, adapting on whatever that comes our way.
The team responded very well today and played a good first half. Second half was a little bit sluggish. It was the right decision by the Technical Delegate to continue this match despite the long delay and obviously we got the right results.
Tomorrow we will play Pakistan, and it is another Test match. We have to step up our game. I am confident New Zealand can put an end to Pakistan’s unbeaten run. We want to put some momentum in this game and end our pool matches on a high note”
SOUTH KOREA: TAESEOK MIN (COACH):
“We had a much better game in the third and fourth quarter. There wer0e some mistakes we did early in the game and that caused us to go down by three goals.
Our next game is against host Malaysia and it is going to be a tough match. Malaysia is a very strong team and the players are very fast. We will strengthen our defence and not allow the Malaysians much space to move and score.
