Pakistan twice fought back from a goal down to defeat South Korea 3-2 and claim seventh place in men's field hockey at the Olympic Games on Thursday. The match eventually hinged on a tale of two short corners. From one of them Muhammad Imran scored with a powerfully flicked shot which hurtled into the top right corner to put Pakistan ahead for the first time with just 10 minutes to go.
From the other, two minutes later, Lee Seung-Il narrowly shot past the post, and it proved an omen, for despite all their subsequent pressure the Koreans could not find the equaliser. They had looked the more likely winners at half-time, by which time they had taken a 2-1 lead, with both goals coming from the dangerous Hyun Hye-Sung. The second happened after an almighty scramble and a delay of several minutes to inspect all seven camera angles before it was decided that there had been no fouls and that Hyun's looped effort had in fact gone in. The ball had pin-balled around the penalty area, almost going in several times, and eventually only got over the line by about four inches after striking a post.
Pakistan's first goal came from a fine shot by Waqas Muhammad, and the second by Abdul Haseem Khan, at the third attempt. New Zealand produced an overwhelming first-half performance in a 3-1 win over Argentina which gave them ninth place. Three goals within half an hour gave the Kiwis a psychological ascendancy they never really lost, even though Argentina battled hard to make an impression and pulled one back in the second half. New Zealand had come within one minute of beating Olympic champions Germany in a 10-goal thriller on Tuesday, and began as if they were going to score as prolifically again.
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