Women's football: DPR Korea penalty drama

Favourites DPR Korea had to work overtime to defeat a stubborn Japanese side 4-2 on penalties, after the match finished 0-0, and win their second consecutive Asian Games gold medal in the women's football competition at Qatar Sports Club.

Goalkeeper Jon Myong Hui was the heroine for DPR Korea, saving two penalties in the tense shoot-out and leave Japan's dreams of winning gold lying shattered on the turf.

DPR Korea started the game looking for an early lead to help them open up the Japanese defence. And within seven minutes they produced two good chances, with Kim Kyong Hwa shooting over the bar and Ri Un Gyong forcing Japan's goalkeeper Miho Fukumoto into a fine save.

A scramble in the penalty area after a corner kick in the 37th minute saw Eriko Arakawa of Japan headed the danger away as DPR Korea continued to threaten, and two minutes later, woman of the match, Fukumoto had to stretch to reach Ri Kum Suk's header and send the ball out for a corner.

One of Japan's most dangerous weapons throughout the tournament was the corner kick, and during the first half it looked to be the only way they could threaten their opponents - although goalkeeper Jon remained secure.

In the 56th minute, Japanese defender Azusa Iwashimizu, who scored the match winning goal against China and a goal against Korea, almost added a third heroic strike to her personal record before her effort was stopped on the line.

Sixteen minutes later, Arakawa superbly dribbled between two defenders before she passed the ball to Homare Sawa instead of shooting at goal and the chance to break the deadlock disappeared as the DPR Korea defence regrouped.

Japan were lucky not to lose the game in the last few minutes of the match when Ri sent a header inches wide, but were unlucky themselves when Shinobu Ohno's strike 10 minutes into extra time was disallowed for a close offside call.

With fatigue affecting both sets of players a penalty shoot out loomed ominously, and when Jon saved Japan's first two spot kicks from Sawa and Kozue Ando, DPR Korea never looked like missing, with Jong Pok Sim stepping up to calmly slot home the winning strike.

"Today's match gave me the best feeling ever," said forward Ri. "This is better than when DPR Korea won the Asian Women's Championship in 2001 [Ri scored a goal in the final match of that tournament against Japan]."

Kim Kwang Min, coach of DPR Korea, was not 100 percent happy with his team's performance despite winning gold, "As you know, we went into in our quarterfinal, so we are quite tired. Even though we are on a similar level to Japan, I believe we are better than Japan, so I'm not overly satisfied that we couldn't win in the 90 minutes."

Meanwhile, Japan coach Hiroshi Ohashi said, "Despite losing we still came second. Our problem was we don't have a team that could win in the 90 or 120 minute time frame. I feel responsible for not creating a team that could win in this time frame.

Physically, Japan in terms of athlete size are smaller than China and DPR Korea, so we had to put more effort into defence. We were attacked frequently, but still held them off, so I think this worked quite well."

15th Asian Games, Doha 2006