JAKARTA: Japan started their women’s hockey campaign in earnest when the routed Chinese Taipei 11-0 in their opening Group A match at the GBK Hockey Stadium.
It was a classic performance by the Japanese as they had full control of the match,
Japan’s head coach Anthony Farry said that there are still some areas of concern in their defensive play. “It is always good to start with a win, but we need to improve in some areas. There was too much room in the defense and they caused some problems for us. We will improve as we go along”, he said.
Japan, ranked 14th in the world, had little trouble against the Chinese Taipei side which is in 53rd place in the FIH ranking.
It took the Japanese just two minutes to open the scoring with Hazuki Nagai making good their first penalty corner. Nagai went on to score two more goals in the 4th and 17th minutes from a penalty corner and field attempt. The onslaught continued with Motomi Kawamura scoring the third goal in the eighth minute and again in the 19th minute from field attempts.
The other first-half goal was scored by Yukari Mano in the 12th minute off a field attempt.
Japan started the third quarter with another early goal as Emi Nishikori scored with a direct flick from the penalty corner.
Nagai went on to score two more goals in the 42nd and 53rd minutes.
Motomi was also in the scoring act with two goals in the 51st and 52 minutes.
Nagai had five goals in the match while Motomi scored four.
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