On the 10th, Day 3 of the East Asian Women’s Football Championships 2010 Finals Competition (Tokyo) was held with China PR playing Korea Rep. and winning 2-1. China PR with a record of 1 win, 1 loss will meet Chinese Taipei on the final match day (13th) whilst Korea Rep. play Japan.

China PR were under pressure in the first half but struck twice in the 2nd half to claim the victory. Straight after kick off China PR created good chances such as from FW HAN Duan’s through ball to MF YOU Jia and MF BI Yan from mid-field but Korea Rep. retaliated with well organized defense and individual strength as central defenders KIM Yoo Mi and KIM Do Yeon shut down the attack. In the battle for the second ball in mid-field China PR were stronger but their defensive line allowed Korea Rep. too many attacking opportunities.

Korea Rep. also relied on the presence of tournament first time starter FW JI So Yun. The skilful 18 year old FW and scorer of 2 goals in their first match, MF LEE Jang Mi got good chances and applied pressure to the China PR goal. In the 16th minute Ji So Yun broke away down the left wing. It was an excellent one on one chance versus the GK but her shot was right at China PR GK ZHANG Yanru. In the 28th minute LEE Jang Mi and MF CHO So Hyun combined well to break through the middle. However they lost pace in front of goal and they couldn’t convert the chance into a goal. In the 36th minute a rebound from a left sided corner fell who to MF JEON Ga Eul who crossed and another rebound found JI So Yun. However JI So Yun’s right footed shot struck the cross bar. Korea Rep. were looking for their first win since the Asian Football Women;s Championships 2005 but they couldn’t turn that pressure into goals to take the lead.

Head coach LEE Sang Yup regretted the missed opportunities saying “The difference between men’s and women’s football is how they react to something that happens. If we had scored (from the shot that hit the crossbar) we would’ve ridden that momentum into the second half but that chance slipped by and we were caught out.” China PR didn’t miss that moment either, with DF YUAN Fan saying “We were under pressure in the first half. But at half time the coach said “Let’s change it up. Don’t be too aggressive.” And the players were able to put that into effect on the pitch.” Within 6 minutes MF PANG Fengyue played a pinpoint cross in to the middle from the sideline. MF MA Xiaoxu jumped well in between two defenders to head it in and open the scoring.

2 minutes later FW PARK Hee Young, scorer of two goals versus China PR at the 2008 Finals Competition came on for FW JUNG Hae In. However China PR, now in the lead, played the counter attack coolly and their attacks began to bare fruit. In the 62nd minute their valuable 2nd goal came. From a right sided CK to the near post YUAN Fan headed towards goal. This beat the Korea Rep. GK to end up in the back of the net.

In the 68th minute another substitute FW YOO Young A joined LEE Jang Mi in attack. This strategy finally saw a result in the 85th minute. From just outside the box JI So Yun curled a FK into the top left corner to reduce the lead to one goal. However that one goal lead proved too big and as JI So Yun put it herself “If we had more time we could’ve equalized…” but the match ended with the score line unchanged. Head coach SHANG Ruihua celebrated their first win of the competition saying “We lost our first match to Japan but this match saw a big change in heart in our team I think. It was a very valuable win.”