n korea beat australia to make cup final

N Korea beat Australia to make Cup final


June 6, 2008 - 7:14AM


Australia's women are out of the Asian Cup football tournament, beaten by North Korea 3-0 in Thursday night's semi-final thanks to a Ri Kum-suk (what the!) hat-trick.

Asia's number one ranked team will play defending champions China in Sunday's decider as they go in search of a third title as the perfect warm-up for the Olympics in August.

The Chinese beat Japan 3-1 in the second semi-final on Thursday night.

"This match was not easy for us," North Korean coach Kim Kwang-min told reporters.

"Australia have a very strong team that are very skilful but our players showed a great spirit to win."

Australia coach Tom Sermanni had no complaints with the result.

"North Korea were considerably better than we were in every area of the field and they out played us for most of the game," he said.

"But our aim was to get to the semi-finals and we have done that, so in that sense I am quite pleased with what we have achieved."

The Australians were on the back foot almost immediately when Asian Player Of The Year Ri fired a shot beyond goalkeeper Lydia Williams in the second minute to open the scoring.

North Korea, who won the competition in 2001 and 2003, were looking dangerous and it was almost 2-0 six minutes later when Kim Yong-ae's pass nearly found Kim Kyong-hwa in the area before a defender cleared the danger.

The Matildas, finalists two years ago, soaked up the pressure but didn't have a shot on target until midway through the half when Lisa De Vanna found some space but failed to trouble goalkeeper Jon Myong-hui.

The Koreans extended their lead four minutes before the break when Ri Un-suk sent a dangerous pass across the face of goal, which Ri Kum-suk smashed into the roof of the net.

Australia came out for the second half fired up and looked a far better side, but North Korea weathered the storm and Ri completed her hat-trick on the hour mark when she despatched a low shot through the legs of Williams.

North Korea remain unbeaten in the tournament, including a morale-boosting 1-0 victory over China in the group stages.