KARACHI, 26 April 2004 — Archrivals Pakistan and India moved closer to an exciting clash in the final, mauling chief challengers South Korea and Malaysia respectively in the 5th Junior Asia Cup here at the Hockey Club of Pakistan Stadium yesterday.
Playing in front of more than 5,000 boisterous fans, Pakistan came back from 0-1 down to trounce defending champions South Korea 7-3 and finish on top of Pool A.
Reigning world junior champions India beat Malaysia 5-2 in the last Pool B clash to set up a semifinal date with Korea. Malaysia, finishing second in Pool B, will play the in-form Pakistanis in the last four. Short corner specialist Imran Warsi and right-winger Adnan Zakir scored two goals each in what was Pakistan’s biggest win over Korea in the history of the event. Pakistan were beaten 3-4 by the Koreans in the previous edition of the Junior Asia Cup in Kuala Lumpur in 2000.
Korea drew first blood with a 13th minute short corner strike by specialist Jong Hyun-jang.
Seven minutes later, Asim Khan’s blistering shot off a short corner rebound sounded the board to level scores 1-1. Imran Warsi scored off Pakistan’s third short corner just four minutes later to give his side a 2-1 lead, which they held on till halftime. Pakistan produced a series of attacks early in the second session but the Koreans managed to earn the equalizer against the run of play when Sung Kweon-hong converted a short corner off an indirect shot.
Warsi converted a 45th minute short corner, his ninth goal in the tournament, to take Pakistan 3-2 up. But Korea took full advantage of a rare error by Warsi in the defense to make it 3-3 through Sung Hoon-yoon just a few minutes later. With the scores tied, it seemed that the match would see a close finish but the Pakistani attack had different ideas. The hosts produced four goals within ten minutes, two of them scored by talented right-winger Adnan Zakir, to complete a morale-boosting win.
Earlier, India took a 3-0 lead but saw a grand recovery by Malaysia before securing a 5-2 win with a late flurry of goals.
Skipper Sandeep Michael struck twice while short corner marksman Sandeep Singh flicked in his 13th goal of the tournament to give India a three-goal cushion by the 36th minute.
But Mohammad Rejab converted two short corners within ten minutes to bring Malaysia back in the game. V. Raja helped India consolidate their lead scoring from near the goal-mouth to make it 4-2. Sandeep Singh then scored his second goal of the match in the dying moments through a low push to complete India’s fourth straight win in a row.
Minnows Singapore sprung the biggest surprise of the competition when they trounced last year’s semifinalists Japan 2-1 in a Pool A game. Singapore led 2-0 till the 58th minute with goals from Shi Hee Lim and skipper Noorkhairi Samsudin.
Liu Yixian converted a short corner in the second half to help China pip lowly-rated Sri Lanka 1-0 in a Pool B game.
