Hard-working Koreans fail to make pressure count

The Netherlands will be relieved to have taken three points from their last pool A match after Korea worked ceaselessly to get a result in this engrossing game at the Kyocera Stadium. It all looked to be going the way of the Oranje when Naomi van As (3') opened the scoring with a rebound shot, following Lee Sinhye's initial save from a Maartje Paumen penalty corner. But the Koreans, led by their hard-tackling Kim Jongeun, had other ideas and if they had managed to make the most of their seven penalty corners then it could have been a very different story. The match finished 3-0, but the Netherlands team will be pleased they have a few days to recover from such a tough match before their semi-final match on Thursday.

After van As' opening goal, the Netherlands went on the attack again and four minutes later a second corner was fired in by Paumen. The shot was saved by the Korea 'keeper, who should be pleased with her own contribution to the game, as she kept her team's hopes alive for the first 50 minutes of the game. Worryingly for Max Caldas is his side's inability to put a game to bed early. The Netherland's pressure on the Korean team wasn't the relentless surge that was expected and with every minute that the scoreline remained at 1-0, the Koreans looked increasingly dangerous. 

Throughout the first half and then, despite the hot conditions, all through the second half Kim Jongeun, together with goal-hungry Park Mihyun and Han Hye Lyoung, tirelessly ran at the Netherland's defence and Joyce Sombroek in the Dutch goal was called on to make the most saves she has produced so far this tournament. Winning her 50th international cap, Willemijn Bos put in some crucial tackles for the Netherlands to keep the scoreline at 1-0 going into half time.

The second half was more of the same, with the Netherlands creating opportunities through van As, Eva de Goede and Kelly Jonker, but the flow and connectivity that epitomised the earlier Netherlands games was missing for large periods of play. Xan de Waard will be disappointed by her effort when she was unmarked in front of goal and neither de Goede or Paumen were able to make a series of three penalty corners count. Equally disappointed however will be the Koreans. They worked incredibly hard to get round the Dutch defence and, in the last 10 minutes of the game they won seven penalty corners. That Sombroek was only called on to save a couple of attempts, with the remainder going wide or being closed down is an area that coach Han Jin Soo must address.

The game was put to bed by none other than Paumen (48'). First a rocket of a penalty stroke after a Korean defender stopped a penalty corner on the line with her hand, and then a fantastically taken penalty corner (55'), which flew past Lee Sinyhe.

The result means that the Netherlands finish top of the group and will play either the USA, Argentina or China, while Korea will play for fifth/sixth place, and who they play remains any of the USA, Argentina, China or Germany.

Speaking after the game, Bos said: "We started well, but as it got hotter and we didn't score it was getting tougher and tougher. In the end we did a good job, and now we can get ready for the semi-finals. We don't really mind who we face in the semi-finals, although we know the Argentinians much better than we know the USA. Before that match we need to look at our defence. Although we didn't concede, we were lucky and we cannot afford to give away so many penalty corners."