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Sloppy India escape with draw against Korea
The defending Asia Cup champions raised victory hopes before the hosts found a late equaliser in the Super 4 tie
Unlike the last couple of years where India dominated hockey in the continent, it isn’t going to be a walk in the park for the hosts this time around. Not with the way they are playing.
Porous defence, lack of coordination, indisciplined and wayward counterattacks, India continued their poor run at the Asia Cup, just about managing to eke out a 2-2 draw against defending champions South Korea in their first Super 4 match at the Bihar Sports University Hockey Stadium here on Wednesday.
What looked like an anomaly when the Harmanpreet Singh-led squad lost seven successive matches in the European leg of the FIH Pro League in June, looks to be nothing less than very poor form against teams who couldn’t even qualify for the Paris Olympics, let alone enter the top 10 in the world.
The contest was delayed by 53 minutes due to torrential rain which hit Rajgir after a day of extreme heat, bringing down the temperatures. The downpour, which began with the game about to start, also slowed the field, and despite their best efforts, the volunteers could not remove enough water from the blue turf. The teams played a number of aerial passes but as time went the pitch got faster with the drainage system at this new ground working.
Hardik Singh (8th minute) got the hosts off to a wonderful start when he collected a beautiful ball from Sukhjeet Singh, who poached it from Lee Seung-woo in the midfield. Hardik dodged past many Korean defenders and scored, much to the delight of the 5,000-odd fans who had turned up hoping for a big win for India. Hardik has a history of scoring brilliant individual goals, not common in modern day hockey. But that was the high point.
Almost everything from thereon went downhill as India trailed for almost two-thirds of the contest. Korea had come prepared with a plan to counterattack India at every opportunity. Those attacks did yield a penalty stroke as the TV umpire ruled that Jugraj Singh had intentionally pushed Oh Seyong.
Yang Ji-hun (12th) scooped the ball to the top left of India goalkeeper Krishan Pathak, silencing the crowd. Korea showed game awareness to challenge the umpire’s decision as they kept their referral after managing to draw level.
Two minutes later, Korea stunned the Indian team when the umpire awarded a penalty corner (PC) after the ball struck Mandeep Singh’s foot. Kim Hyeong-hang (14th) converted brilliantly, hammering the ball through the legs of first rusher Amit Rohidas to take the lead.
There was total silence as Craig Fulton’s team started searching for an equaliser from the start of the third quarter. India pressed hard, but Korea were resolute in defence, bringing in all their players to not allow Indian attacks through.
In panic mode, the home team displayed moments that saw a lack of coordination many times, attacking in a haphazard way. There were several mispasses which if they had been pushed properly could have resulted in goals.
Korea, the world No.15, on the other hand were calm. It was visible in their body language. The holders were playing a perfect zonal game during counterattacks and reverting to man-to-man marking during defence, bringing in all their players, unlike most other top teams who at least keep a midfielder and a forward outside the 23m line.
The Koreans defended deep each time India came forward. The home team’s lack of discipline in this tournament continued. Barring the game against Kazakhstan which was an easy 15-0 win, India were handed four cards, including a yellow for Jarmanpreet Singh, in their 4-3 win against China in the opener. Three more cards, including a yellow for skipper Harmanpreet Singh, followed against Japan. It was the skipper who was again handed green this time around.
After defending deep brilliantly for 39 minutes of end-to-end action with South Korean goalkeeper Kim Jae-han playing a hero’s role, Mandeep Singh (53rd) was finally able to draw level in the final quarter off a field attempt to the relief of the crowd.
Though he scored, Mandeep missed multiple open chances. So did fellow forwards Abhishek and Sukhjeet. They also failed in earning PCs, earning only one in the second and third quarters.
Despite 23 circle penetrations to Korea’s eight, India were only able to convert two. None of their six PCs were converted with Harmanpreet, Amit Rohidas and Jugraj all floundering.
“We had enough chances throughout to win the game. It’s a team effort. The strikers can’t get the ball themselves, someone has to give it to them. It’s not like they are not trying,” said India chief coach Craig Fulton.
“They just packed the D. You just need to have a bit of composure. We created enough, it wasn’t that we didn’t create. If we create the same amount of chances in the next game we will score three goals and that’s the truth.”
India next play Pool B toppers Malaysia on Thursday.
