SYDNEY– South Korea edged host Australia for top spot in Group A at the\u00a0Women\u2019s Asian Cup\u00a0on goal difference after a 3-3 draw Sunday in front of a tournament-record crowd at Sydney\u2019s Stadium Australia.<\/p>\n
Philippines maintained a chance of advancing to the quarterfinals with a 2-0 win over Iran in another Group A match that kicked off simultaneously in wet conditions at Gold Coast Stadium.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Iranian women\u2019s team exited the tournament\u00a0on three losses and faces a return to a country embroiled in war. Organizers have not announced details for Iran\u2019s departure from Australia.<\/p>\n
The top two teams in each of the three groups advance to the quarterfinals along with the two best third-place teams, meaning Philippines will have to sweat on other results after placing third in Group A.<\/p>\n
South Korea will play the third-place team from either Group B or Group C in the quarterfinals, while Australia will have to face either defending champion China or three-time champion North Korea.<\/p>\n
Australia twice rallied from a goal down in front of a crowd of 60,279, with Chelsea forward Sam Kerr playing a key role and with Alanna Kennedy scoring twice, including the late equalizer in stoppage time. Both teams finished unbeaten in the group, but 2022 finalist South Korea finished with a goal difference one better than Australia\u2019s.<\/p>\n
The crowd surpassed the attendance of 44,379 at Australia\u2019s opening game aganist Philippines in Perth on March 1, which was a Women\u2019s Asian Cup record.<\/p>\n
Kerr and Caitlin Foord both missed scoring chances for Australia before South Korea opened with a counter-attacking goal in the 13th minute after Jeon Yu-gyeong outpaced the defense and set up Mun Eun-ju for the score.<\/p>\n
Kenney made it 1-1 in the 32nd after lead-in work from Foord and Mary Fowler and Kerr gave Australia a 2-1 lead going into halftime with Kerr scoring from close range just before the break.<\/p>\n
Kim Shin-ji and Kang Chae-rim came on as substitutes in the second half and had a quick impact, giving South Korea a 3-2 lead. Kim Shin-ji\u2019s penalty kick made it 2-2 in the 53rd and she delivered the cross for Kang\u2019s goal four minutes later.<\/p>\n
Kennedy\u2019s goal eight minutes into stoppage time ensured Australia finished unbeaten, albeit not entirely happy with the result.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all know we needed to win tonight, so it felt like a loss to be fair,\u201d Kerr said.<\/p>\n
South Korea coach Shin Sang-Woo felt like his team should have won.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to say thank you to all of my players because they did not give up and gave 100% to the end. I slightly feel sorry that we couldn\u2019t end this game with three points, but I\u2019m still delighted with the first goal to be winner of this group.\u201d<\/p>\n
Philippines scored a goal in each half in a tough encounter against the Iranian women\u2019s team to clinch third place and maintain a chance of progressing.<\/p>\n
Sara Didar had an early chance for Iran but her strike in the sixth minute was comfortably saved by goalkeeper Olivia McDaniel.<\/p>\n
At the other end, 38-year-old Iran goalkeeper Raha Yazdani kept it level with three saves in four minutes but Philippines opened the scoring in the 29th when Sara Eggesvik had a goal awarded after a VAR review.<\/p>\n
Yazdani made three more crucial saves late in the first half to keep it to 1-0 at the break and it took until the 82nd minute before substitute Chandler McDaniel fired in the goal to give Philippines a two-goal buffer.<\/p>\n
In Group B, defending champion China and three-time winner North Korea are into the quarterfinals after their\u00a0second consecutive wins. On Monday, North Korea plays China in a match that will decide top spot, while Bangladesh takes on Uzbekistan.<\/p>\n
In Group C,\u00a0two-time champion Japan\u00a0leads with six points following an 11-0 win over India in Perth on Saturday. Japan will next face Vietnam, which lost 1-0 to Taiwan on Saturday after opening with a 2-1 win over India.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SYDNEY– South Korea edged host Australia for top spot in Group A at the\u00a0Women\u2019s Asian Cup\u00a0on goal difference…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[79430,49,48,2454,44,561,82],"class_list":["post-523996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-asahi-shimbun","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-japan","tag-news","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}