Germany beat Korea to reach final

Germany booked their World Cup final place with a hard-fought 3-2 win over South Korea on Thursday, thanks to captain and player of the year Florian Kunz marshalling his defence as the Koreans chased an equaliser.

South Korea, who had a penalty-corner conversion disallowed and two penalty-corner claims denied in the final minutes, shocked the cup favourites after only seven minutes.

Song Seung Tae and Yeo Woon Kon worked a move down the left and the latter slotted his shot past Clemens Arnold but the lead lasted barely two minutes as Bjorn Emmerling slammed home a penalty-corner.

After the interval Germany stepped up the pace and were rewarded when a Christian Wein cross was missed by the South Korean defence and Christoph Bechmann touched it in in the 41st minute.

But five minutes later Kim Kyung Seok levelled the score and with 15 minutes to go Matthias Witthaus grabbed the winner.

DEFENSIVE MISTAKES

South Korean coach Kim Young Kyu said he was happy with his players but they had made some mistakes in defence.

"It was a tough and close match. We had good ball movement and perhaps had more chances to score but it was very tough," said an emotional German coach Bernhard Peters.

"It is equal to me if we play Australia or the Dutch in the final. They are both excellent teams but it is a good chance for us," he added.

In the day's play-off matches for the placings, Pakistan overcame host nation Malaysia 2-1 in the five to eight placings group.

Sohail Abbas put Pakistan ahead after only 19 minutes before a 53rd minute blunder by Abdul Rahman left Shahbaz Ahmed in for the second. Tajol Rosli got one back six minutes later but Pakistan never let Malaysia threaten again.

Argentina needed a golden goal from Jorge Lombi to defeat England. Lombi had put his side ahead but England's Danny Hall equalised to take the game into overtime.

The results mean on Friday, Pakistan play Argentina for fifth and sixth place and England meet Malaysia to decide seventh and eighth.

South Africa guaranteed a match against Belgium for places 13-14 on Friday when they dispatched winless Cuba 5-1.

Justin King (9th), Greg Nicol (10th and 30th), Gregg Clark (11th) and Emile Smith (27th) scored for South Africa and Edel Sayas (27th minute) got one back for Cuba.

Belgium had Marc Coudron (41th and 44th) to thank for their 2-1 win over Poland whose consolation came from Krzysztof Witczak in the 54th minute.

The play-off matches continue on Friday with the meeting of the beaten semifinalists preceding Saturday's final.

Mail Sports Editor