Seconds out as tale of the tape leaves Irish crestfallen

Grown men both on the pitch and in the stand openly wept at an eerily quiet Belfield yesterday after Ireland’s Olympic dream was snatched from them in the cruellest fashion. There were just nine seconds left on the clock with the score at 2-2, when Korea’s Jong Hyun Jang swept a free hit from just outside the 25 towards the Irish circle. It was one last bit of defending to do for the Irish as extra time loomed. When it came, it was aimed at a Korean player standing among the Irish wall five metres away. He jumped to allow it a path into the circle, and it went all the way to the backboard. Umpire Murray Grime signalled for a long corner, but Korea were already celebrating – they vehemently urged him to send the decision upstairs to the video umpire, who was in situ only for the final of this tournament. By now, just two seconds remained on the clock. The body language of the Irish players told it all. Mikey Watt sat on his heels with his shirt over his head. Goalkeeper David Harte didn’t know whether to look skywards or at the Belfield turf. And after what seemed an interminable wait, it was given. Correctly, we hasten to add. Nam Yong Lee, easily Korea’s best on the day and Southern Fried Hockey’s vote for player of the tournament, had got the faintest of touches to redirect it goalwards, wrongfooting both John Jackson and a blindsided Harte. A horrible, sickening quiet descended on the sun-drenched ground, punctured only by yelps of joy from Korea and their small but admirably noisy supporters. It was, Irish coach Paul Revington said, his “hardest coaching experience”, while Chris Cargo was one of the few Irish players willing or able to attempt to verbalise his thoughts in the immediate aftermath. “Words can’t describe how the lads are feeling right now,” admitted the Bangor native. “We really believed we could win this and we’ve shown everyone how good we are this week… but (to lose like this) is just unbelievable.” Revington normally exudes a professional, unflustered demeanour but even he was visibly shaken by the hand his side had been dealt, as three years plus of hard work came down to the finest of margins. “The body language of the players generally tells a story and I think everyone knew it was a goal,” he admitted. “Everyone has worked hard (at this) for over three years. It’s going to be tough to face them tomorrow. Sport deals us blows and we’ve got to stand up and keep going. I’ve faced a few hard coaching experiences but… this is it. “We were confident the whole way through. This group has performed incredibly well and I didn’t think for a second that we were going to lose it.” Having overcome their third seeding to earn a place in the decider against tournament favourites Korea with a stout 1-1 draw against Malaysia on Saturday, hopes were high that Ireland could give the nation a sporting good news story on St Patrick’s weekend after the demise of their rugby counterparts in Twickenham.

President Michael D Higgins was among those looking on as Peter Caruth fired Ireland into a 14th-minute lead, power-slapping home a rebound after Myong Ho Lee had repelled John Jermyn’s drag-flick. That confident start helped settle the nerves but Ireland always looked susceptible to the pace and accuracy of Korean breakaways, with goalkeeper David Harte and the excellent Paul Gleghorne and John Jackson having to put out a few fires. Young-Jin Kim fired a warning shot when he dinged the upright with a reverse-stick effort but Ireland were eventually unravelled on 30 minutes when Nam Yong Lee dribbled to the baseline, faked to square the ball and just kept on going before sliding it under Harte for 1-1. That came while Ireland had skipper Ronan Gormley off the pitch having copped a green card and a two-minute suspension, as had happened against Malaysia 24 hours previously when the Asian side scored while Ian Sloan was in the bin. Against the Malaysians, Ireland had shown composure to stick to their gameplan to get the 1-1 draw they needed off a Jermyn penalty corner. They did the same here, and it paid dividends on 55 minutes. Timmy Cockram failed to get hold of his low drag-flick but it crept inside the left-hand post. It was just reward for a spell of Irish pressure that had also seen Korean goalkeeper Lee produce one of the saves of the competition, flinging himself back across goal to block Eugene Magee’s first-time sweep after Andy McConnell – who had an excellent tournament – had managed a rare foray to the baseline for the hosts. There was another sting in the tail five minutes later though, with Korea awarded a penalty stroke after Nam Yong Lee was bodychecked in the Irish circle. Ireland appealed to the video umpire to no avail, and Hyun Woo Lee sent Harte the wrong way from the flick spot for 2-2.

From there, it was the world number six side who looked most likely to steal it. Umpire Grime was central in adding to the drama. He did Ireland a favour in calling a halt to play just as the irrepressible Lee popped in a high volley only for the umpire’s whistle to deny him the advantage. The penalty corner he gave was expertly saved on the line by Gormley. Then D-K Oh picked up a second green card – debate on the technical bench suggested it should have been yellow but it was not in their remit to upgrade the penalty to five minutes. A wonderful sliding block from Paul Gleghorne subsequently denied Jong Hyun Jang as he shaped to reverse from a threatening position, but then came Lee’s golden touch to leave Ireland crestfallen. The ‘green machine’ therefore won’t be motoring on to London 2012, but Revington insists his troops will pick themselves up for the other challenges that lie ahead. “We have to be pleased with the week. A moment like this is hard to understand, sometimes. We don’t control things like this but this a young group, they’ve played incredibly well for a number of years. When they stand up again and carry on fighting, they will progress.” *RTE’s match highlights on the 9 o’clock news give an aerial view of the winning goal. You can watch them on the RTE Player here, skip to 10:45. IRELAND: D Harte (GK), J Jackson, G McCabe, R Gormley (capt), M Watt, E Magee, I Sloan, M Darling, D Ames, P Gleghorne, S Loughrey. Rolling subs: C Cargo, J Jermyn, P Caruth, A McConnell, T Cockram. KOREA: M-H Lee (GK); D-K Oh, N-Y Lee, S-I Lee; S-H Yoon, H-S You, J-Bok Cha; E-S Hong, Y-J Kim, J-H Jang, H-W Nam. Rolling subs: J-H Seo (capt), W-K Yeo, M-K Kang, H-S Hyun, S-H Cho. Umpires: M Grime (Australia) & G Simmonds (South Africa). Electric Ireland FIH Road to London Men’s Olympic qualifiers, UCD Final: Korea 3 (N-Y Lee 2, H-W Nam) Ireland 2 (P Caruth, T Cockram) 3rd/4th playoff: Malaysia 6 (Razie Abd Rahim 2, Muhammad Marhan, Hafifihafiz Hanafi, Azlan Misron, Faizal Saari) Russia 1 (S Komarov) 5th/6th playoff: Ukraine 2 (A Ozerskyi 2) Chile 1 (J Zirpel) Final standings: 1 Korea (qualify for London 2012 Olympics); 2 Ireland; 3 Malaysia; 4 Russia; 5 Ukraine; 6 Chile.