MELBOURNE: South Korea came from a goal down early in the second half to beat Olympic champions Germany 5-3 at the men’s field hockey Champions Trophy on Sunday.

The Koreans cut Germany’s defence to ribbons five minutes into the first half with Soo-Kyuk Yang latching on to a pass from Hyo-Sik You to score.

A brilliant effort by Matthias Witthaus, flicking into the top of goal from 10 metres out, and Jan-Marco Montag’s conversion of Germany’s second penalty corner put the world champions 2-1 up three minutes into the second half.

But the Koreans’ superior fitness and ability to counter-attack with long passes into Germany’s backfield yielded them four goals in the last 20 minutes.

Jong-Ho Seo got the equaliser followed by a blistering penalty corner to Hyun-Woo Nam and a penalty stroke to Nam-Yong Lee when German goalkeeper Philip Witte took out Soo-Kyuk Yang in the circle.

You set up Seo for his second goal with a drive into the circle which Seo deflected past Witte to give South Korea a stunning 5-2 lead.

Montag converted Germany’s fourth penalty corner in the last seconds of play for a consolation goal.

The Germans suffered a pre-match blow when key defender Benjamin Wess was disqualified by the tournament director, Guido Braca, who ruled that Wess had not served a one-match suspension imposed at last year’s Beijing Olympics.

Braca suspended Wess for two more matches and Germany manager Jochen Hempel for one match for allowing Wess to play in Saturday’s 3-2 opening win over England.

Germany appealed early on Sunday and the appeal jury gave Wess a one-match suspension for the match against South Korea and lifted Hempel’s suspension.

It has still to be decided whether Germany will lose the three points it earned against England when Wess played while under suspension.

Germany coach Markus Weise was unsure whether the dispute over Wess’s suspension had affected the team’s performance against South Korea.

“Maybe it had an effect, I don’t know, I could say yes the performance today was clearly influenced by that, I’m not sure,” Weise said. “They deserved the win.”