Korea punctured defending champions Malaysia’s aspirations in a dramatic 4-1 penalty shootout victory in the quarterfinals of the 8th Men’s Junior Asia Cup at the Wisma Belia Hockey Stadium.
The Koreans came back from the brink of defeat; trailing 1-3 with only four minutes remaining to strike two quick goals from Sim Jae Won and Yoo Han Young to hold the hosts to a nightmarish 3-3 draw in regulation time.
This miraculous escape means the Koreans not only became the third team here to qualify for the 2016 Junior World Cup following the shadows of Japan and India but also advanced to Saturday’s semi-finals of the Junior Asia Cup against either Pakistan or China.
For the Malaysians, the heart-breaking defeat in front of 4,000 fans was simply disastrous after failing to earn a ticket to the Junior World Cup for the second time following similar failure in 1997 in the Singapore qualifiers.
“Personally I consider this defeat and our failure to reach the Junior World Cup as disastrous,” said Malaysian Head Coach Arul Selvaraj. “A lot of things went wrong in the last five minutes. I believe the players snapped when Korea scored the second goal to trail 2-3 and lost focus.”
Korean team manager, Yoo Moon Ki, commended his players for the great fight back and said: “I had decided before the match that if we lose I will not return to Korea for some time. But now I am glad we turned the tables on Malaysia in this highly explosive match.”
Shahril Saabah had given hosts the lead with a sixth minute penalty corner goal and the Malaysians went ahead 2-0 through Sufi Ismat Rohulamin (31st). It was only in the last 10 minutes that the match turned into a gripping affair with Korea pulling one goal back through Kim Sung Yeob (61st) while Haziq Muhammad Samsul extend the lead to 3-1 with a 63rd minute field goal. But Korea did the impossible by scoring two late goals to force a 3-3 draw and penalty shootout.