Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Ho Chi Minh City: Korea Republic’s prolific striker Park Eun-sun was named the AFC Women’s Asian Cup Top Goalscorer after netting six goals in five games in the continental competition held in Vietnam.
While China’s Yang Li also scored six times, Park was given the award as a result of having one more assist than the Steel Roses forward.
Park had made a flying start to the campaign in Vietnam with a brace against Myanmar in Korea Republic’s opening Group B fixture in their dominant 12-0 victory before bagging a hat-trick against Thailand.
And although she went scoreless against China in the final group stage tie, Park was on the score-sheet again in the 2-1 semi-final loss to Australia with a second-half penalty that pushed her to the top of the competition’s scoring charts.
“Of course I’m disappointed that the team didn’t finish as high as possible, so while this award is something good to have on a personal level, it’s a little bitter sweet today as we didn’t finish where we wanted,” said Park, after her side’s 2-1 loss to China in the third-place play-off.
The powerful Korean, who stands at 5’11” and weighs 74 kilos, was also among the top scorers at the 2004 AFC U-19 Championship before she took a leave of absence from the game from 2005 to 2010.
And having returned to football and the national team, Korea Republic coach Yoon Duk-yeo was delighted with her efforts in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup, her first international tournament since ending her self-imposed exile.
“I’m really happy with her performance throughout the tournament; we feel the opponents will mark her as one to watch in the World Cup stage and in future tournaments,” said coach Yoon.
Park admitted it had taken her a little while to re-adjust to competitive football for her country but she was pleased with the way she had progressed in the continental championship.
“I hadn’t been called up to the national team for a while but obviously it took me a little time to get used to all the systems and again and to fit in with all the players. The tournament went well, though, I scored lots of goals and I started to feel a bit better with my team-mates and we bonded together well after the group stages,” said the 27-year-old striker, who will celebrate a return to the FIFA Women’s World Cup finals next year, 12 years since her first appearance at the international tournament.
“The next World Cup will be my second time since the 2003 edition, but I feel that tournament came a little too early for me in my career and I really didn’t achieve very much or play well there. Next year though, I feel is a big chance and I really want to do more for the second World Cup in my lifetime, so I will be preparing for that.”
Yang netted four of her six goals in the 7-0 drubbing of Thailand and added another against Myanmar in a 3-0 win. Her sixth, and her most important, came in the final seconds of the third place play-off against Park’s Korea Republic in a 2-1 victory.
Further behind the East Asian attackers came Park’s team-mates Cho So-hyun and Jeon Ga-eul both level with Australia’s Katrina Gorry and Thailand forward Kanjana Sung-Ngoen on three goals.