Hockey: Black Sticks upset by Korea

The Black Sticks Women have suffered a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Korea in their second pool game at the Hockey World Cup in The Hague.

Korea scored a fast-break goal through Darae Kim just before halftime and while the Kiwis battled hard, they simply couldn't find an equalising goal.

The Black Sticks had their best scoring opportunity from a penalty corner with 16 minutes remaining but Anita Punt's powerful drag flick went just wide of the right post.

With one win and one loss so far at the tournament, the next three pool games against Netherlands, Australia and Japan become extra important with the semi-finals looming.

Head coach Mark Hager said the loss was disappointing but his side will now regroup and focus on performing well in their next clash.

"The way we lost was the most disappointing thing, we had no fight in us today. They outplayed us and deserved to win the game," he said.

"We didn't create enough opportunities, didn't move the ball well and we didn't win enough one on one contests.

"In the end it came down to one error on a sideline free hit where we didn't cover properly. We'd spoken about it before but we weren't diligent enough about it and they scored an opportunist goal.

"It's disappointing but you've got to move on and we now need to get six or seven points from our final three pool games otherwise we're going to be in trouble."

The Black Sticks Women play their third pool game against the Netherlands in front of a sold out stadium of 15,000 on Thursday at 5.45am (NZ time).

The Black Sticks Men play South Africa in their second Pool B game on Wednesday at 12:30am (NZ time).

In other women's Pool A results today, Australia edged Japan 3-2 to remain unbeaten while the Netherlands go up against Belgium later in the day.