Asia Cup: South Korea Stop Speedy Tigress From Advancing To 'Super 4s' Round

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 8 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian women's national hockey team's dream of advancing to the 'Super 4s' round of the 2025 Women's Asia Cup Hockey Championship in Hangzhou, China, has been crushed after a 0-5 thrashing by three-time champions South Korea in their final Group A match today.

The match at the Gongshu Canal Sports Park Stadium saw seasoned campaigner Cheon Eunbi play a pivotal role, scoring two field goals within three minutes, in the 27th and 30th minutes respectively, to help her team secure a slot in the 'Super 4s' round.

Earlier, the team coached by Kim Yoon opened the scoring with a penalty corner goal by Kim Eunji in the 12th minute while Jeong Dabin also scored from a similar situation in the 39th minute, before Cho Hyejin netted a field goal to complete their dominant victory two minutes before the match ended.

The result leaves the Speedy Tigress in third place with three points, thus failing to qualify as one of the top two teams from Group A to compete in the 'Super 4s'.

South Korea now tops Group A after accumulating six points and boasting a superior goal difference (14) compared to hosts China (11), who share the same points in second place. Taiwan occupies the bottom position with no points.

China, also a two-time champion, will complete their Group A fixtures against Taiwan at 7 pm tonight.

Malaysia began their campaign this time with a disappointing start, suffering an 0-8 defeat to China last Friday, before bouncing back to demolish Taiwan 11-1 yesterday.

Mohd Nasihin Nubli Ibrahim's squad will continue their challenge in the classification stage for fifth to eighth place starting this Wednesday.

The national squad's best achievement was securing third place in the inaugural edition in 1985 in Seoul.

-- BERNAMA