South Korea captain Jang Hyun-soo converted a penalty two minutes from time yesterday to beat archrivals Japan and secure a place in the Asian Games semi-finals.
Victory over Thailand in the next game could see the South thrown into a final with another rival, North Korea, who must thank Jong In-gwan for an injury-time goal as they beat United Arab Emirates and reached the last four.
Thailand beat Jordan 2-0, while North Korea face a tough tie against Iraq, who downed Saudi Arabia 3-0 with veteran striker Younis Mahmoud returning to haunt the Saudis.
Photo: Reuters
Mahmoud, who hit the winner in Iraq’s 2007 Asian Cup final win over the Saudis, got two goals this time to inflict more misery on the country where he plays his league soccer.
South Korea missed countless chances to break the resistance of a young Japanese side in front of 43,000 raucous fans, many wearing flashing “Red Devils” horns.
Jang calmly tucked away a spot-kick in the 88th minute after substitute Lee Jong-ho had been clattered from behind by Ryota Oshima and left with blood pouring from his nose.
South Korea’s players will be excused two years of mandatory military service if they win the tournament, which is played under the Olympic under-23 format.
Thailand will play South Korea after beating Jordan 2-0 through goals from Chanathip Songkrasin and Thawikan Kroekrit.
North Korea face the toughest semi-final, with Iraq finding goal-scoring no problem at this Asian Games contest. They beat Indonesia 4-2 to reach yesterday’s game.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with