Hockey: Women's team go down 1-0 to Korea

Coach Mark Hager was disappointed at the teams loss.

The Black Sticks Women were beaten 1-0 by Korea yesterday 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 couldn't find an equalising goal.

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

With one win and one loss at the tournament, the next three pool games against Netherlands, Australia and Japan become more important with the semifinals looming.

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

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

"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.

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 tomorrow morning.APN News & Media