Japan and South Korea encounters have always been exciting in the history of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup and the show continued in the 30th edition of the Sultan Azlan Shah (SAS) Cup in Ipoh this evening.
In the SAS Cup opening matches today, the Japanese, ranked 16th in the world, can thank Tsubasa Tanaka and 29-year-old Shota Yamada, who received the Man of the Match award, for turning the screws on the Koreans, ranked World No 11, with a field goal in the 13th minute, and extended the lead seven minutes later via a penalty corner conversion.
The Koreans threatened a strong comeback through Lim Dohyun from a penalty corner in the 47th minute but his powerful drive which went wide.
Despite being two goals down, the Koreans continued to play positive attacking hockey in the fourth quarter and earned a second penalty corner in the 52nd minute. Dohyun was spot on this time as the score stood at 2-1 in favour of the Japanese.
In the 2022 edition of the SAS Cup, the Koreans won 1-0 in the pool match. However, Japan and Korea last played each other at the 2023 Asian Champions Trophy in Chennai, India. The Koreans won 2-1 in a pool match but allowed Japan the upper hand by registering a 5-3 victory in the third-fourth placing match.
In tomorrow’s matches, Japan will face New Zealand, and South Korea take on Pakistan.
JAPAN: YOSUKA MATSUMURA (COACH)
“We respect South Korea as they are a strong hockey playing nation judging from their world ranking but today my players played aggressively, and went on the attacking mode.
As coach, I am happy and excited with this win. The three points is important as we continue our journey to play hard in the next matches. We will face stronger teams in the few days and we must prepare to face the challenges.
Shota is an experienced senior player and his presence in the team is important as he guides the youngsters. Our mission is to win the gold medal in the 2026 Asian Games.”
SOUTH KOREA: TAESEOK MIN (COACH)
“We have several young players, like most of the other teams, and they came under pressure early in the match. It was a good experience for them but they fought hard to get back into the match after two goals down.
The positive side is the players worked hard to score goals and played a much better game in the second half. We have four more tough matches and lean from this experience to give a better performance.”
