New Zealand survived waves of Korean attacks before pulling off a 2-1 upset victory to keep alive their semi-final hopes in the hockey World Cup in Delhi on Friday.

The Black Sticks scored through Andrew Hayward (fourth minute) and Dean Couzins (22nd) in their third Pool A match.

Korea pulled one back, Lee Nam Yong scoring from a penalty stroke in the last minute.

The victory kept New Zealand in contention for a semi-final berth. They have two wins and a loss from three matches, and two more matches to play - against Argentina and Germany.

With a draw and a win from three matches, Korea are not out of contention but they will find it difficult to make it to the semi-finals as they play Canada and the Netherlands in their remaining matches.

Korea have themselves to blame, as they did most of the attacking throughout the match and failed to score from seven penalty-corners they got, six in the second half.

New Zealand, who had made it to the World Cup through a qualifier, took the early lead when Andrew Hayward scored from a penalty-corner in the fourth minute.

Korea pressed hard for an equaliser but their forwards failed to give the finishing touches and the Kiwi defenders maintained tight man-marking, denying their opponents space and penalty-corners they were looking for.

Title contenders the Netherlands are virtually in the semi-finals of the Hockey World Cup 2010 after thrashing Canada 6-0 on Friday.

The Dutch pumped in all six goals in the second half to maintain their unbeaten run in the tournament.

Taeke Taekema (41st and 63rd minutes), Rogier Hofman (48th and 56th), Ronald Brouwer (43rd) and Rob Reckers (53rd) scored for the Netherlands.

The Dutch are at the top of the Pool A with nine points from three matches. Canada are out of contention for a semi-final berth with their third successive loss.

The Dutch earned eight penalty corners from which they converted two while Canada failed to get even a single penalty corner.

Canada, seven places below the Netherlands at 11th in the FIH rankings, kept their opponents at bay in the first half. Even though the Dutch enjoyed maximum possession, they failed to create any noteworthy goal-scoring opportunities.

With 19 goals against his name, Taekema's has now become the third most prolific scorer in World Cup history. He is only behind his compatriots Paul Litjens (26) and Ties Kruize (21).

He went past Wolfgang Strodter (18 goals) of erstwhile West Germany, countryman Floris Jan Bovelander (17) and Pakistani Sohail Abbas (17) who had so far scored just one goal from three matches in the ongoing World Cup.

The Dutch were disallowed a goal in the 23rd minute with the Scottish referee ruling that Ronald Brouwer's reverse stick shot was too high.

The Canadian goalkeeper also made a couple of fine saves - first stopping a Taeke Taekema drag flick in the 18th minute and then Rob Recker's reverse stick shot two minutes before the breather.

But it was a goal rush in the second half with the rampaging Dutch scoring almost at will and broke the Canadian resistance.

Germany move to second place in Pool B after beating Argentina 4-3 in a keenly fought match on Friday.

In a battle between the top and bottom-ranked sides, the Germans withstood a late onslaught from the South Americans to emerge triumphant.

Martin Zwicker (fifth and 14th minute), Matthias Witthaus (23rd) and Martin Haner (51st) scored for Germany, while Lucas Martin Vila (sixth), Matias Enrique Paredes (34th) and Pedro Ibarra (55th) were on target for Argentina.

Germany, who were clinical in 6-0 drubbing of Canada in their second match, were unable to control the midfield and owe their success to their goalkeeper Tim Jessulat, who brought off many splendid saves, including a goal-line clearance in the dying moments.

The defeat put Argentina out of semi-final contention having lost their earlier two matches also.