AFC Women’s Asian cup 2010: Vietnam 0-5 Korea Repubic

Korea Republic failed to reach the semi-finals of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2010 despite Yoo Young-a scoring a hat-trick in Sunday’s 5-0 demolition of Vietnam at Shuangliu Sports Centre.

The East Asians needed to win and hope China lost to Australia in the other game in Group B if they were to stand a chance of progressing to the knock-out stage.

And Korea certainly did their job as Cha Yun-hee and Jung Hae-in also scored to comfortably see off the challenge of Vietnam, but China beat Australia 1-0 to send Lee Sang-yup’s side head home early.

Jung was the first to threaten for either side after nine minutes when she shot wide through a crowd before the 20-year-old forward then saw her effort from the right of the area was blocked on the line by a Vietnam defender.

Korea should have opened the scoring after 20 minutes when the lively Jung pierced the Vietnam defence with a delightful ball that sent Yoo through on goal but the Busan Sangmu forward lashed a shot harmlessly wide.

That miss seemed to give Yoo added determination and she quickly made amends to put her side in command with two goals in as many minutes, first pouncing on a defensive error to prod the ball into an empty net before then lifting a shot into the back of the goal almost straight from the restart.

The Vietnamese defence was in disarray and the game was ended as contest after 28 minutes when Cha was afforded space inside the box and the Germany-based forward took her time before drilling a shot into the roof of the goal.

Vietnam finally managed to muster their first chance of the half 10 minutes before the break when Tran Thi Kim Hong was unmarked on the left but wastefully lashed a shot wide from distance.

It proved a brief respite for the South East Asians as Korea Republic increased their lead seconds later as Yoo smartly sent Jung through on goal and with goalkeeper Dang Thi Kieu Trinh opting to stay on her line, the striker took her time before placing a shot into the bottom-right corner.

It took until the 64th minute for Korea to once again find a way past Kieu Trinh, although the shot-stopper initially did well to deny Jeon Ga-eul’s close-range header but succeeded only in pushing the ball out to the feet of Yoo, who stabbed home to complete her hat-trick.