The Indian women's football team slumped to a heavy defeat at the hands of hosts South Korea, as they lost 10-0 in their second game of the Group Stage of the Women's Football event at the Asian Games on Wednesday.
The South Korean women, who won the bronze medal at the 2010 Asian Games in China, and have qualified for next year's FIFA Women's World Cup for the first time in 11 years, completely dominated the proceedings.
A lot was expected of the Indian women, who had dished out a similar battering to Maldives, in their previous match. In fact, the Indian eves had thrashed Maldives 15-0 in their opening match of the Group Stage of the women's football event at the Asian Games on Sunday.
The Indians however, succumbed to a heavy defeat to a much superior Korean side. The efficient Koreans had raced into a 5-0 lead by half time itself, pumping five more into a bulging Indian net, after the changeover.
The Koreans started dominating the game right from the kick-off, as the Indians struggled to cope with the pressure. Yoo Younga scored four goals, Jeon Gaeul scored three, Jung Seoblin scored two, while Park Heeyoung scored one, to make the score 10-0 for the Koreans on full time.
The hosts were so much in control that they raced into a 2-0 lead within just nine minutes of the kick off. The Indians just could not handle the pressure that the Koreans exerted on them. The hosts did not sit back, even after going 2-0 up. It seemed as if they were trying to bring down India's +15 goal difference, as much as possible.
To make an already difficult game even tougher for India, their captain Bembem Devi was given her marching orders, after she received her second yellow card of the game, early in the second half.
Meanwhile, Thailand beat Maldives 10-0, and are now level on both points and goal difference, with India. The final two games of the group would see hosts South Korea, who have already qualified for the quarter finals, play lowly Maldives, who cannot mathematically progress from the Group Stages any more; while Thailand and India, who are both on the same amount of points in the group fight it out for the remaining quarterfinal berth.
The clash between India and Thailand, on Sunday, is much like a knockout round match, where the winner takes it all. Both India and Thailand are currently sitting on three points each, with both the teams having the same goal difference of +5. However, India currently leads the table by virtue of a superior number of goals scored. They can thank their 15-0 victory against the Maldives for this situation.
Thus, India only needs a draw against Thailand to progress to the quarter finals. However, the Indian women, who are ranked 50th in the FIFA Women's rankings, would be without captain Bembem in this crucial game, against the 29th placed Thailand.
