Forward Shinobu Ono scored once to lead Japan to a 2-1 victory over South Korea and win the women’s title at the East Asian soccer championship yesterday.
Japan ended the four-nation round robin with three straight wins. China had two wins and a defeat, South Korea a 1-2 record. Winless Taiwan were at the bottom.
Earlier in the day China defeated Taiwan 3-0.
PHOTO: AFP
“We kept the momentum until we scored two goals, while South Korea were still tuning up. But after that, they started to play more aggressively and it became a difficult game,” said Japan coach Norio Sasaki.
Japan got off to a flying start when Ono received the ball in the Japanese field and then dashed forward, getting past the Korean defense line into the area to fire a sizzling shot for the first goal in the seventh minute.
The home side quickly made it two up when Ono sent a straight pass to midfielder Mami Yamaguchi, who hit home into the right side in the 17th minute.
South Korea started to play much better after the break, starting with Cho So-hyun’s header that went wide, and almost controlled the game until the end.
Midfielder Lee Jang-mi’s shot went over the bar, but finally they scored a goal off the Japanese for the first time in the tournament when forward Yoo Young-a netted on a Cho So-hyun pass in the 75th minute.
But it completed the scoring for both teams.
Taiwan managed to stay on level terms with China until a minute into the second half when Han Duan opened the scoring.
She struck again on the hour mark before Pang Fengyue wrapped up the match with the final goal 15 minutes from time.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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