Asian Games 2018: Indian women's hockey team settle for silver

Indian eves celebrate after claiming the silver medal. Pic/PTI

World No. 12 Japan hoodwinked the World No. 9 Indian women's hockey team with one particular penalty corner execution, beating them 2-1 to enter the final at the GBK Sports Complex here yesterday.

With the score reading 1-1, the Japanese girls earned a penalty corner in the third quarter and came up with a unique execution that left the Indian defence dumbstruck. Japan's Motomi Kawamura, positioned right next to the drag flicker, received a pass and took the ball to her left before unleashing a fierce reverse hit towards the right, past a floored India goalkeeper Savita's outstretched feet. It was not a drag flick. Nor was it a direct hit, but a mix of both, in a way. "It's a variation that the Japanese girls hadn't done throughout the tournament. I just checked with one of their coaches," Hockey India's high performance director David John told mid-day moments after the defeat.

India coach Sjoerd Marijne

'Can't blame our girls'
"I honestly cannot blame our girls because you cannot defend something you've never seen before. The Japanese players must have practised the routine but never used it in any of their games here, so our girls hadn't seen it before," added John, who was disappointed with the defeat but took heart in the fight put up by the Indian players.

Japan opened the scoring in the 11th minute through a penalty corner conversion by Shimuzi Minami. India did well to equalise, when Neha Goyal got to the end of a reverse hit by Navneet Kaur to tap in for 1-1 just before the end of the second quarter. Both teams went neck-to-neck thereafter before Japan came up with that smart PC maneuver.

Coach proud despite loss
India coach Sjoerd Marijne gave full credit to his girls and said that their only fault was that they couldn't score as many as Japan. "I think a draw would have been a fair result here. I think this is a gold medal lost for us rather than a silver one. Tomorrow, maybe after it sinks in we could say that it's a silver won, but I'm proud of the way the girls played," he said with a smile.

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