THERE was drama, plenty of it in the Pakistan and Korea match and in the end Korea prevailed to make the final with a 4-2 win.Both teams had to win by two clear goals to progress into the final at the expense of Australia.
Pakistan went ahead in the 31st minute when Mohamad Zubair scored after a botched penalty corner attempt by skipper Muhammad Imran. The ball was played out of the semi circle by Muhammad Touseeq who relayed it to Zubair at the far post to knock it in.
At that stage Pakistan needed another goal to progress into the final. But Korea came charging out in the second half and equalized via Lee Nam Yong in the 38th minute.
Korea were awarded a penalty stroke in the 46th minute and Nam Yong easily put the ball past Imran Shah, and now it was Korea who needed another goal to make the final.
However Pakistan came fighting back and Imran sent in a low flick off their sixth penalty corner in the 55th minute to tie the match at 2-2.
In the 66th minute the situation turned chaotic as umpire Warren McCully awarded a penalty stroke to Korea. The Pakistanis protested and in the melee yellow and red cards were shown. Pakistan players refused to continue and manager Khajawa Junaid was seen discussing the issue with Daljit Singh, the Technical Official from Malaysia.
Imran was shown all three cards, green, yellow and red by McCully and it further aggravated the situation as far as Pakistan was concerned.
Tournament Director Paul Richards then stepped in and by that time the match had been stopped for well over five minutes.
After the fracas, Nam Hyun Woo scored from the spot to put Korea 3-2 ahead and they needed just one more goal, playing against the ten men Pakistani side.
Fareed Ahmad was shown the yellow in the 67th minute after Korea were awarded a penalty corner and Hyun Woo scored with two minutes on the clock.
Korea’s Ro Jong Hwan was then sent to the sin bin with less then two minutes remaining and Aamir Shazad joined his captain on the red card list with one minute remaining.
