What was expected to be a regulation victory for the World No. 3 Indian team against a Korean side that are not even among the top 10 of the world (No. 12), turned out to be a hour-long roller-coaster of a ride
India’s Hardik Singh against Korea yesterday. Pic/PTI
The Indian hockey team are known to increase the pulse rates of its supporters, particularly in big matches. And Wednesday’s semi-final against Korea at the Gongshu Canal Sports Park was no different. What was expected to be a regulation victory for the World No. 3 Indian team against a Korean side that are not even among the top 10 of the world (No. 12), turned out to be a hour-long roller-coaster of a ride.
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India began brilliantly with two goals inside the first 11 minutes—Hardik Singh (5th minute) and Mandeep Singh (11th min) finishing things off respectively after a strong build up by Harmanpreet Singh and Co. In the 15th minute, Lalit Upadhyay tapped in to give India a massive three-goal lead. This cushion however, proved to be an uncomfortable one, and the Indians sat uneasy thereafter.
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Two minutes later, Korea’s Jung Manjae scored off an indirect penalty corner conversion and then added another three minutes later to bring his team right back into the match at 2-3. An Amit Rohidas (24th) penalty corner drag-flick saw India enter the breather with a two-goal cushion again. On resumption, though Jung got one more in off a penalty corner to complete a fine hat-trick and put India on the edge once again.
The Korean strategy was simple, get the ball into the Indian circle anyhow, work out a short corner and let Jung do the rest. And it was working, before the Indian defence finally realised their head coach Craig Fulton’s defend to win strategy and held fort for the next 10 tense minutes. Striker Abhishek (54th) finally ensured India breathed easy with a stylish reverse hit to make it 5-3 and take them one step away from a gold medal finish.
Skipper Harmanpreet, whose team reached this stage with massive wins in the league phase of the competition (16-0 v Uzbekistan, 16-1 v Singapore, 4-2 v Japan, 10-2 v Pakistan, 12-0 v Bangladesh), admitted that it’s never easy in a semi-final.
“In the first half we dominated and took a good lead but then things changed. Semi-finals are never easy,” said Harmanpreet, who was part of the Indian team that lost to Malaysia via shootout in the semi-finals of 2018 Jakarta Asiad after taking a 2-0 lead. “Mentally, you have to be ready because anything can happen in such games. But overall, defensively we did well, especially in the last quarter. They were somehow trying to get a PC, but our defence managed things at the back,” he added.
India will take on Japan in the gold medal match on Friday with a ticket to the all-important 2024 Paris Olympics on offer.
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