S. Korea beat Qatar in men's football behind midfielder's hat trick

NAGOYA — South Korea defeated Qatar 4-1 to begin their men's football tournament of the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games in central Japan on Tuesday, a victorious start to their quest for a fourth consecutive gold medal.

Swansea City midfielder Eom Ji-sung scored a natural hat trick in the first half of the teams' first Group D match at Nagoya City Mizuho Park Rugby Field in Nagoya amid heavy downpours. KRC Genk forward Kim Myeong-jun had South Korea's fourth goal in the 66th minute, while Marwan Sherif had the lone Qatar goal in the 85th minute.

Coached by Lee Min-sung, South Korea will play Saudi Arabia for their second match at 7 p.m. next Tuesday at the same Nagoya venue.

Eom opened the scoring for South Korea just under seven minutes into the contest. Center back Kim Ji-soo floated the ball into space on the left wing, and Eom sped past defenders for an open look and fired a left-footed shot into the bottom right corner.

Eom doubled South Korea's lead in the 20th minute, this time with his right foot. When a clearing attempt landed in no-man's land between two Qatari defenders, Eom pounced on the loose ball and scored past goalkeeper Abubaker Osman.

Eom then scored his third straight goal with the clock ticking down on the first half. Midfielder Lee Seung-won made some great individual effort on the right side of the box to create a passing lane for Eom, who received the feed on the opposite side before cutting to the middle and firing the ball home to put South Korea up 3-0 entering the second half.

The South Koreans held Qatar without a shot attempt in the first half, while putting five on target themselves.

South Korea did not let up in the second half as they kept pushing for more goals, with Yang Hyun-jun in the 52nd minute and Kim Myeong-jun five minutes later denied by Osman from close range.

Kim did get his moment in the 66th minute when he took a through ball from Yang and sprinted into the box before beating Osman to the bottom left corner for a 4-0 lead.

The only blemish for South Korea came in the 85th minute, when Qatari substitute Marwan Sherif scored his team's lone goal.

For the Asian Games, coach Lee called up nine players based in European leagues, though one of them, Grasshopper forward Lee Young-jun, has not yet been released by his Swiss club and is expected to arrive in Japan just before the Saudi Arabia match.

In Nagoya, 15 nations have been split into three groups of four and one group of three. Group D is the lone group with three teams, and South Korea will only play two group matches, as opposed to three by the teams in the three other groups.

The top two teams from each of the four groups will progress to the quarterfinals.

If the South Koreans win Group D, they will face the runner-up from Group C in the quarterfinals at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 25 in Nagoya. But if they end up in second place in Group D, their opponent in the quarterfinals will be the Group C winner at 2 p.m. on Sept. 25, also in Nagoya.

The semifinals are scheduled for Sept. 30 at Nagai Stadium in Osaka, some 140 kilometers west of Nagoya. The bronze medal match and the final will be played on Oct. 3 at Toyota Stadium in Toyota, about 25 km east of Nagoya.