World Cup: England Breeze Past Korea to Set Up Argentina Clash

FIH Hockey Women’s World Cup Crossover Match

England 5 Korea 0

England earned a quarter-final berth against Argentina by beating Korea at the crossover match stage for the second World Cup running, having won 2-0 on home turf at Lee Valley in 2018.

In 2022, England won by a bigger margin in Terrassa, Spain having flown from Amsterdam after finishing second in Pool B to qualify for the crossover stage. England also kept their second successive clean sheet with Korea failing to force a single penalty corner and only really giving England any problems in the third and fourth quarters, after trailing 3-0 at half time.

The individual milestones continued with Laura Unsworth winning her 300^th combined cap to join an illustrious group as the fifth player to win a 300^th cap behind Kate Richardson-Walsh, Karen Brown, Jane Sixsmith and Alex Danson-Bennett.

Shares in flower shops were boosted further as Shona McCallin won her 50^th England cap and Tess Howard received her 50^th combined cap, following on from Hannah Martin’s 100^th combined cap in the previous match against China.

Martin had two early chances and Darcy Bourne forced a save from Jinmin Lee in the Korean goal in the eighth minute with Ellie Rayer also testing Lee and Sophie Hamilton unlucky not to find anyone in the circle from a penetrating pass in the first quarter.

The game was won and lost in a decisive second quarter in which England scored three goals in nine minutes. For the third game running, England converted their first penalty corner of the game, Giselle Ansley’s drag-flick sent high above Lee into the roof of the net in the 17^th minute.

Three minutes later, Howard commemorated her 50^th cap by doubling England’s lead putting away a rebound against the backboard after Lee made an initial save. Ansley scored England’s third goal in the 26^th minute with a carbon copy of her first goal, England having used their video referral to good use to win the corner after an open play save from Lee was judged to be dangerous.

Two minutes after half time, Grace Balsdon couldn’t make it a hat-trick of England penalty corner conversions as Eunji Kim who took over in the Korean goal at the interval, denied her with a save.

Korea started to get more into the match after Maddie Hinch kicked the ball away in the 34^th minute and England will be slightly concerned about their discipline with Holly Hunt and Lily Owsley both having spells in the sin-bin in the third and fourth quarters respectively after seeing yellow, although Korea failed to take full advantage of having an extra player.

Korea’s day was probably summed up with eight minutes to play when Eunbi Cheon swung and missed with the goal at her mercy. England then struck twice in three minutes to complete a comprehensive victory. Martin, who had also spent two minutes on the naughty step in the first quarter, started and finished a 1-2 move with Rayer in the 54^th minute and two minutes later, it was Rayer’s turn to find the net after receiving a perfect pass from Fiona Crackles.

Sabbie Heesh replaced Hinch in the England goal after the fourth goal and with one second remaining there was an unfortunate incident when Hunt caught Hyejin Cho, but after initial concerns, the Korean player was able to walk off the pitch.

England now face Argentina in the last eight on Wednesday night with the push back time to be confirmed. Korea have a more immediate encounter, facing Japan on Monday in the first round of 9^th-16^th place classification matches.

England:

Scorers: Giselle Ansley 17-PC, 26-PC; Tess Howard 20-F, Hannah Martin 54-F, Ellie Rayer 56-F

Starters: Maddie Hinch (GK); Laura Unsworth, Anna Toman, Hannah Martin, Ellie Rayer, Izzy Petter, Giselle Ansley, Hollie Pearne-Webb (Capt.), Fiona Crackles, Sophie Hamilton, Lily Owsley.

Subs: Darcy Bourne (4 mins), Grace Balsdon (4), Holly Hunt (5), Tess Howard (5), Shona McCallin (5), Lily Walker (5), Sabbie Heesh (GK) (54).

Cards: Green: Hannah Martin (11 mins).  Yellow: Holly Hunt (41 mins), Lily Owsley (49 mins).

China:

Starters: Minji Kim, Jungeun Seo, Eunbi Cheon (Capt.), Jina Kang, Su Ji Choi, Yuri Lee, Jeong In Kim, Suyoung Seo, Hyejin Cho, Hojeong Pak, Jinmin Lee (Capt.)

Subs: Seona Kim (4 mins), Seungju Lee (4), Hyunji Kim (5), Yujin Ji (6), Cheyoung Jung (7), Sujin An (9), Eunji Kim (GK) (31)

Cards: Green: Su Ji Choi (19 mins).

Umpires: Alison Keogh (Ireland) and Ayanna McClean (Trinidad and Tobago)