Taman Daya Hoki Stadium, Johor Bahru, Malaysia                7 June 2009

In the opening matches of the Jr. World Cup Field Hockey Tournament, the USA U-21 Men’s Team faced South Korea in Pool C on pitch Johor 2.  The USA men worked hard in the first half to control the pace of the game with S. Korea trying to speed up the pace.  On each change of possession, the USA would carefully setup controlled strategies which kept the S. Korean offensive and defensive thrusts manageable.  In the first half, most of the S. Korean’s 4 goals came as short corner conversions.   The US defense did an outstanding job in controlling S. Korea’s field goal opportunities.  Each successful short corner by S. Korea had to be won one at a time, grudgingly surrendered by the USA.

For the a good portion of the second half, the USA kept the score at 4-0 by good defense with the USA goalie and its deep defenders deflecting opportunity after opportunity by the S. Koreans deep the USA end of the field.   Later in the second half, the USA surrendered a couple more short corners leading to a total score of 7-0 S. Korea vs. USA.    It was a furious intense match with the USA men valiantly fighting though the complete match without letup, in very hot conditions.  There were frequent rotations to keep the players cool in the high humidity.   Everyone got lots of playing time and played very, very hard.  The US kept up the intensity of play throughout, with the game being decided by close differences in execution.  The South Koreans executed extremely well, with the US also doing well but just missing critical opportunities and exchanges when needed most.