Field Hockey: Japan claim last ticket to Olympics

Sports

Field Hockey: Japan claim last ticket to Olympics

Close

Japan beat Azerbaijan 5-1 in the final qualifying tournament.

05 May,2012 07:02 pm

Japan claimed the last ticket to the London Olympics womens hockey when they smashed Azerbaijan 5-1 in the final qualifying tournament on Saturday.Whenever my players run and move very well, we never lose. We played our best match today. I was sure of the victory when I watched the first half, said Japan coach Zenjiro Yasuda.But this is not our goal. We finished eighth in the Athens Olympics and 10th in Beijing.We are aiming to finish better than sixth. Im going to think about our tactics for the London Olympics.Japan join Argentina, Australia, Belgium, hosts Britain, China, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, South Korea and the United States at the London Games.Skipper Yukari Yamamoto added: We tried to fight believing in ourselves and we did it pretty well. Weve done a lot of hard training for the tournament. Hopefully, we can play better in London.Well try to do our best to clear our goal to finish higher than sixth place.Japan, hosting the qualifying tournament, needed only eight minutes to take the lead when defender Ai Murakami sent a pass on a penalty corner for Rika Komazawa to score from close range.Forward Akane Shibata put her side three up with a brace in the 21st and 25th minutes, while fellow forward Kaori Fujio added another in the 28th to end the first half 4-0.Azerbaijan pulled one back through captain Khatira Aliyeva, who struck home on a penalty corner in the 41st minute, only to see Komazawa net her second to complete the scoring.