The South Korean men’s junior national hockey team lost to Malaysia, 3-1, in the third game of their Pool B preliminary round at the Oman International Ice Hockey Championship at the Shultan Qaboos Youth Complex in Salalah, Oman, on Sunday (July 27).
The loss dropped the Koreans to second place in the group after they finished ahead of Malaysia on goal difference the day before.
South Korea will play Bangladesh, the third-place team in Group B, at 11:45 p.m. ET on Aug. 28, with the outcome of the final four games of the preliminary round determining who advances to the quarterfinals.
South Korea has the same record as Bangladesh with two wins, one loss, and six points, but has a much better goal differential of +10 to Bangladesh’s zero. At the very least, a draw will allow South Korea to finish second in Group B and advance to the quarterfinals.
The game was a de facto group final for first and second place in Group B, and it was tight from the start.
After Malaysia’s Tangaraja scored a penalty corner goal in the 11th minute of the first quarter, both teams traded offense for offense, ending the second quarter scoreless.
At the start of the third quarter, the battle for dominance between Korea and Malaysia intensified, with Gong Yun Ho (Chosun University) and Wan Nazmeh (Malaysia) receiving green cards in the process.스포츠토토
After conceding another penalty corner in the 54th minute, South Korea fell behind 0-2 when Shami Suhaimi scored a penalty corner goal, but soon after, in the 56th minute, a strong ground ball cross from the left flank was redirected by Park Gun-woo (Korea Gymnastics University) to make it 1-2, 1-0.
However, a minute later, in the 57th minute, Korea conceded a penalty corner goal to Malaysia and eventually fell to their knees at 1-3.
The game will be broadcast on the International Hockey Federation’s (FIH) live streaming platform, ‘Watch Hockey’ (free).