India crash to second defeat in women's hockey

In a serious setback to their medal hopes, the Indian women's hockey team suffered a humiliating 0-5 loss to South Korea in Busan on Monday to crash to their second successive defeat in the Asian Games.

The Indian team, which had won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, are in danger of returning without a medal from this four-cornered competition unless they beat Japan by a big margin in their last league match.

Japan shocked favourites China earlier in the day with a 2-1 victory that left the field wide open.

South Korea assured themselves of a place in the final with today's victory but the second finalist will be decided only after the final round of matches on Wednesday.

South Korea scored their first goal through a penalty-corner, in the 32nd minute, which was converted by Oh Wo-woon but the next four goals, which came late in the second half, were all field attempts.

The hosts proved far superior to the Indians and enjoyed ball possession for most part of the match. That the Indians got their first and only shot at the goal in the 41st minute was ample indication of the Korean dominance.

The Koreans were much better organised both in attack and defence while the Indians looked clueless and a disjointed unit.

Korean captain and mid-fielder Eun Yong Lee, whose neat distribution kept the frontline always on their toes, was a tower of strength. Of the four attackers, Oh Wo-woon was so nippy and technically skillful that she single-handedly split the Indian defence on many ocassions.

The Koreans earned nine penalty-corners compared to just one by India.

Indian coach G S Bhangu was so disappointed with the performance that he did not even turn up for the mandatory press conference after the match.

Most of the players were found wanting in their tackles inside the circle and Pritam Siwach was totally off-colour. But for Amandeep Kaur and goalkeeper Tingongleima Chanu, India would have lost by a bigger margin. These two brought about at least four saves, including a goal-line save by Amandeep Kaur.

Korean manager Sang Ryul Kim said his team capitalised on the slowness of the Indians to pump in as many goals as possible.

"I am very happy with my team's performance. We wanted to retain the Games title and score as many goals as possible," he said. "The Indian players were too slow on the field."

After changing ends with a 1-0 lead, the Koreans increased their margin in the 48th minute when Kim Jin-Kyung scored a field goal.

Mi Seong Lee made it 3-0 in the 59th minute while Kim Eun-Jin scored twice, in the 61st and 67th minutes, to seal a convincing victory.

Earlier, Japan scored through Yuka Ogura (33rd minute) and Sakae Morimoto (44th) while Chun Ling Tang scored for China in the 42nd minute.