SINGAPORE - New Zealand and Korea played a 3-all draw in the Medal round of the World Cup giving an opportunity to Pakistan to get through to the next round with must win next matches. In the meeting between New Zealand and Korea, New Zealand played aggressively forward from the beginning, steering the game in the first half. A goal from Simon Child, followed by a top-up from Stephen Jenness, got the Kiwis two goals ahead, but the second goal also startled the lethargic Koreans, who suddenly shifted gears and won a string of penalty corners before the break, one of which yielded their first goal to stay within reach of the New Zealanders. The Koreans were on the way up but suddenly found their flow broken by the half-time break, and after the re-start of the match, it was open battle between the two teams. With fifteen minutes to go, Korea manage to sneak in the equalizer, and New Zealand were hit again a minute later when captain and star player Simon Child was shown yellow-card. Nonetheless, it was New Zealand who were more aggressive and had more opportunities in the first minute or two, until Korea were awarded a penalty stroke when one of their players on a solo counter-attack was felled in the circle by a defender. Korea's Yun Sang Jeong converted coolly, and New Zealand were now down to nine, as the perpetrator was sin-binned as well. Less than a minute after the stroke, Simon Child returned and within seconds, his team won a penalty corner that Joseph Bartholomew flicked high for the equaliser. The remaining few minutes were a high energy back and forth action, both teams pushing for the elusive winning goal but to no avail. In the game between Chile and Singapore both teams were looking forward to achieve their first victory in the tournament. Singapore had the better start, firstly they hit the post during a penalty corner in minute three. Afterwards the hosts took the lead with a nice attack over the right side completed by Enrico Elifh Marican in the eighth minute. Singapore kept on attacking and Chile got short-handed in minute twelve. But when Chile gained their first penalty corner it could only be saved by a Singaporean defender's body on the goal line. The following penalty stroke was successfully taken by Thomas Krussig. During the first half Chile became more and more active and achieved a 3:1-lead in the last two minutes. Captain Andres Fuenzalida and Pablo Thiermann were successful. The second half continued as eventfully as the first one had finished. Immediately after Chilean Martin Rodriguez hit the crossbar, Johnson Sivalingham scored for Singapore on the other side. This brought the hosts back into the game. In minute 53 it were Singapore again who had the opportunity to score through a penalty stroke, awarded after a penalty corner. Muhammad Sabri Yuhari equalized confidently. Unlucky for Singapore that Chile also scored two goals in half two. Martin Rodriguez made both of them. Chile took the lead in Pool I now while Singapore still wait for their first point in the tournament. In the second match of Pool G Japan faced India which tightly missed the medal round behind the Netherlands and New Zealand. India made the 1:0 in their second penalty corner, which was flicked by their specialist and captain Diwakar. During India's fourth penalty corner it was also Diwakar who passed the ball to Mandeep Antil who deflected it into the goal. The same happened during their fifth penalty corner as well and India was 3:0 in front at halftime. Japan rarely appeared in front of the Indian keeper Mrinal Choubey and had no memorable opportunities. India dominated the beginning of the second half but Japan was able to shorten the deficit through a quick counter-attack by Harayuki Fujiyoshi. A few minutes later Mohammad Amir Khan established the old goal difference for India again which Victo Singh Kshetrimayum even extended a few minutes later. Japan's goalkeeper Katsumi Ichikawa was injured after this situation and had to leave the pitch on a stretcher. His treatment caused a longer break but he finally played on. Although Japan had a goalkeeper again they could not do anything about Victo Singh Kshetrimayums second goal for the evening. At the end India slowed down their play and Japan gathered several opportunities. A penalty stroke was converted by Kenta Tanaka. The last event in the game was a counter-attack from India which was successfully finished by Mohammad Amir Khan. India took the lead of Pool G with a great performance in a powerful game. In today's morning session, the USA became leaders of Pool I with a win over Russia, while Belgium defeated England. In the afternoon session, the matches between Egypt and South Africa as well as Korea and New Zealand both ended in draws. Poland defeated the Malaysian home team. Through a 4:3-victory over Russia the USA became leaders of Pool I today. Both teams had lost all games in the preliminary round but today got the chance to achieve their first points in the Pool for the final rankings 17 to 20. Supported by a vocal group of fans, the USA got the better start into the 8.00 o'clock game but failed to take the lead. Instead, it was Russia who were able to convert their second penalty corner, when team captain Alexey Mayorov scored after then minutes. The US team started to attack more fiercely and pressed for the equalizer, eventually scored by Derk Pelle from a rebound. The USA then took the lead as well with a nice goal from Viren Padhier who won possession in midfield, made a long run for the goal and defeated Russia's goalkeeper Andrey Ivanov. The Russian defense entered the blame game over the second goal and was still busy with that when the USA immediately won another penalty corner and succeeded again. Russia thus went into halftime 1:3 down. After another halftime talk at maximum volume, Russia started very aggressive into the second half and gained three short corners in just a few minutes, but all of them were well saved by the US defense. The Russians continued to attack and were successful in minute 43 through Nikolay Komarov, turning the score to 3:2. As Russia was pushing for the equalizer however, Viren Padhiar appeared out of the blue in the Russian circle and increased the lead for the US. At this point, Russia seemed extremely frustrated and wasted another string of penalty corners. Overall, Russia definitely had the chance to tie or even win the game but they were too ineffective in converting their opportunities. A late strike by Nikolay Yankun for the 4:3 was too little too late, as the USA concentrated all efforts on defending their lead for the last minutes of the game and maintained the scoreline until the final whistle. In the European clash in pool G, Belgium took on England this morning. While Belgium had unluckily missed out on the medal round pool with 3 wins and one defeat from 4 games, England had had a disappointing preliminary round with only four points from four matches, finishing fourth in their pool. Both teams thus enter the second phase of the tournament full of ambition - either to salvage what can be salvaged and demonstrate that it really was only hard luck or to redeem themselves. Belgium were quicker of the block and applied early pressure, dominating the bigger part of first half and scoring two goals as Tom Boon netted an early penalty corner and Amaury Keusters added a second goal from open play ten minutes later. After the second goal, the match settled into a seesaw rhythm, going back and forth fast with opportunities for both teams. As time passed, England starting finding their rhythm better and better however and in the second half slowly emerged as the stronger side, pushing the game back into the Belgian half for long stretches of time and creating a good number of scoring opportunities. It seemed like their time had come when Simon Gougnard was sent off with a yellow card but the advantage in numbers lasted only for a little over a minute, until Chris Gregg collected a ticket to the sin bin as well, making it a ten-a-side. Belgium played a smart game in the end phase of the match, defending their lead well with good positioning and excellent team work, and welcomed the final whistle cnverting their pair of first half goals into three points and a big step towards the 9 to 12 play-offs. The afternoon session in Johor Bahru started with the clash of long time continental rivals Egypt and South Africa. South Africa, traditionally the stronger of the two teams in most cases, also had a slight edge on the field and went ahead midway through the first half as Antony Vervoort sank a penalty corner. They piled on a second a little more than ten minutes into the second half, and everyone thought this was more or less the end of that story. Not so the Egyptians - fighting back with all they had, they got within one step of the opposition when Ahmed Abedelhakeem netted a goal from open play, and kept attacking even if without much success. It still looked like the match was in the bag for South Africa as they stonewalled the Egyptian efforts but finally, a reward for their unwavering faith, Egypt won a short corner just before the final whistle, and taken after regulation time ended, they coverted it for the equalizer: Egypt and South Africa thus split the points in their first pool H encounter. In the home team's match of the day, a match of pool H in which Egypt and South Africa had tied earlier, Malaysia faced Poland who had previously only won their encounter with Singapore. In a hard-fought match between equal opponents, both teams had a handful of opportunities but couldn't convert until late in the first half. Poland scored first but was reigned in by Malaysia within 5 minutes as the ever reliable Faizal Saari netted the equalizer. The match was locked down for much of the second half, with both teams unable to gain any significant advantage, but eventually, Szymon Oszyjczyk got through on a rare quick break and scored the winning goal for Poland with only minutes to go. Malaysia threw everything they had forward in the last few minutes in a desperate attempt to salvage a point but to no avail, Poland remained victorious today. Chile v Singapore 5:3 (3:1) 0:1 Enrico Elifh MARICAN (FG), 1:1 Thomas KRUSSIG (PS), 2:1 Andres FUENZALIDA (PC), 3:1 Pablo THIERMANN (FG), 3:2 Johnson SIVALINGHAM (FG), 3:3 Muhammad Sabri YUHARI (PS), 4:3 Martin RODRIGUEZ (FG), 5:3 Martin RODRIGUEZ (FG) India v Japan 7:2 (3:0) 1:0 DIWAKAR (PC), 2:0 Mandeep ANTIL (PC), 3:0 Mandeep ANTIL (PC), 3:1 Harayuki FUJIYOSHI (FG), 4:1 Mohammad Amir KHAN (FG), 5:1 Victo Singh KSHETRIMAYUM (FG), 6:1 Victo Singh KSHETRIMAYUM (FG), 6:2 Kenta TANAKA (PS), 7:2 Mohammad Amir KHAN (FG) USA - Russia 4:3 (3:1) RUS - Alexey MAYOROV PC 10m USA - Derk PELLE FG 18m USA - Viren PADHIAR FG 24m USA - Jon GINOLFI PC 26m RUS - Nikolay KOMAROV FG 43m USA - Viren PADHIAR FG 52m RUS - Nikolay YANKUN FG 63m Belgium - England 2:0 (2:0) BEL - Tom BOON PC 13m BEL - Amaury KEUSTERS FG 22m Egypt - South Africa 2:2 (0:1) RSA - Antony VERVOORT PC 21m RSA - Brandon PANTHER FG 47m EGY - Ahmed ABDELHAKEEM FG 52m EGY - Mohamed EDRIS PC 70m Korea - New Zealand 3:3 (1:2) NZL - Simon CHILD FG 19m NZL - Stephen JENNESS FG 25m KOR - Yun Sang JEONG PC 28m KOR - Moon Kweon KANG FG 56m KOR - Yun Sang JEONG PS 63m NZL - Joseph BARTHOLOMEW PC 66m Malaysia - Poland 1:2 (1:1) POL - Piotr BANIEWICZ FG 28m MAS - Faizal SAARI FG 33m POL - Szymon OSZYJCZYK FG 65m