Hockey: NZ within sight of final after Korea upset

New Zealand are within sight of a place in the final of the Sultan Azlan Shah men's hockey tournament after upsetting Korea 3-2 in Ipoh, Malaysia last night.

Goals to midfielder Bevan Hari, defender Hayden Shaw and striker Phillip Burrows were enough to give New Zealand their second win from three games. However, they will probably need to at least draw against world champions Germany on Friday to qualify for Sunday's final.

After a 1-6 hammering from Pakistan in the first match of the five-nation event on Saturday, New Zealand bounced back with a 4-2 win over hosts Malaysia on Monday.

Captain Simon Towns said last night's win was even more impressive.

"I'm really pleased, to come over here with limited preparation and roll the world No 4 team is something to be proud of," Towns said.

"This is a quality opposition and our players rose to the occasion. On the balance we had the better of things and we did well to hold things together when they started to apply some pressure."

The Koreans became frustrated with New Zealand's dominance of possession, having two players sinbinned for five minutes midway through the second half for tackles from behind.

New Zealand striker Umesh Parag was sinbinned himself for the same reason with five minutes remaining but by then his team led 3-1. Korea scored a consolation goal with two minutes remaining.

Hari's field goal came from a well-worked move just 90 seconds after the opening whistle. Korea responded after 15 minutes and the scores were level at halftime.

Shaw scored from a penalty stroke five minutes into the second half and Burrow's field goal came six minutes later as New Zealand experienced their best period of play.

"By winning two games we've already exceeded our expectations here," Towns said.

"We might as well aim as high as we can now. Obviously it will be hard against the world champs but we both start from level and we'll give it our best shot."

Germany have looked the best team Korea 2 this week, downing Korea 2-0 and Pakistan 4-3 in their two games so far.

There were no major injury concerns although Shaw and Dion Gosling were both nursing knee strains.

- NZPA