Malaysia 3 Korea 2

Korea took a very important step to securing its spot in Sunday’s final at the Electric Ireland FIH Road to London tournament with a 3-2 win against Malaysia. It would now take an incredible string of results for Korea to miss out on Sunday’s final as the last slot will basically come down to the winner of the Ireland-Malaysia game on Saturday.

Jong Hyun Jang’s short corner goal with three minutes left secured the win for the Koreans after an unlikely comeback from Malaysia left the Koreans scrambling in the final minutes to earn the important victory.

Korea took a 1-0 lead five minutes into action when Hyo Sik You tapped in the ball after Malaysia failed to clear the ball after a Penalty Corner. The slim 1-0 lead stood through the first half, despite Malaysia serving more than 20 minutes of suspensions.

Korea came storming out in the second half and wasted no time doubling the lead when You struck for his second of the game. It seemed the Korea’s were well on their way to victory when Malaysia’s Hanifi Mas took advantage of a turnover and popped in the 2-1 goal in the 55^th minute. That was all it took for the momentum to shift to Malaysia’s advantage as just two minutes later the equalizer came when Tengku put in a deflection on a short corner.

It looked the game was destined to end in a draw when Korea was awarded the penalty corner late in the game, setting up Jang’s heroics.

Korea’s last game of the round robin is against Russia, while Malaysia has its most important game of the event against Ireland.