Bangladesh finished 6th in the 18th Asian Games Men’s Hockey after suffering a 0-7 goals defeat against the four times champions South Korea in a 5th place-deciding match on Saturday at the Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) Hockey field in Jakarta.
India remained satisfied with a bronze medal beating former champions and their arch-rivals Pakistan by 2-1 goals in a 3rd place deciding match on Saturday afternoon.
In the day’s 5th place-decider against Bangladesh, Asian hockey giant South Korea scored two goals each in the first two quarters and scored the last goal in the 3rd quarter of the match.
Junghoo Kim put South Korea ahead in the 10th minute by field goal (1-0), Inwoo Seo doubled the Korean margin in the 15th minute, also by a field goal (2-0) while Junwoo Jeong sounded the Korean margin scoring one more field goal in the 26th finished 3rd in the six-team Pool B minute (3-0).
Jonghyun Jang and Manjae Jung scored more goals for Korea from penalty corners in the 27th and 33rd minutes respectively.
Asian giant South Korea were out of the title race from Asiad Hockey as they finished 3rd in Pool A after conceding an unexpected 2-3 goals defeat against lowly Japan in their last group match Tuesday evening.
Japan, the surprise finalists of this year’s competition, are due to play Malaysia in the gold medal deciding final match Saturday evening.
Earlier, Bangladesh hockey team achieved their target of finishing 6th in the 12-team 18th Asian Games Men’s Hockey beating Oman 2-1, Kazakhstan 6-1 , Thailand 3-1, despite losing to Malaysia 0-7 and Pakistan 0-5 in the Pool B outings.
With the feat, Bangladesh also got an opportunity to play directly in the final round of the Asian Games and Asia Cup Hockey from the next time avoiding qualifying round.
