The holiday crowd was treated to an awesome display as hosts dished out a superlative performance to retain the men’s Asia Cup hockey title. Indians were inexorable throughout the ten-day spectacle, as they brought in their seventh successive win and the second against Korea in the final and the most important encounter of the tournament.
India took an early lead in the fourth minute of play. Few minutes later the Koreans found the equalizer with penalty-corner specialist, Hyun making no mistake. It was from here on that the Indian crew pulled their socks up and displayed a fine (rather flawless) performance in the field. The Indians dazzled with superb short passes and scored at regular intervals with Prabhjot Singh, along with Tushar Khandekar and Ignace Tirkey, continuing their good nick to don the pivotal occasion.
The Koreans turned powerless to withstand the Indian flourish and managed to pull back just one goal in the dying moments, ending the tournament with a crushing defeat of 7-2. Indian goalkeeper Baljit - for his brilliant as well as brave play - was adjudged man of the match.
The Indian coach, Joaquim Carvalho, looked immensely delighted with the performance of his (fairly) young team and revealed his future goal of securing a berth for the Beijing Olympic Games next year.
Going by the improved performance of the players from tournament to tournament, I am hopeful that we will qualify for the Beijing Olympics. All through this Asia Cup, the players should be given the credit for adhering to our plan and strategies to maintain a clean slate and winning the gold medal.
The entire tournament revolved around Indian attacking play that was really missing from the last couple of years. In this particular tournament, the Indian players excelled in with dazzling field goals than depending too much on penalty corners. Indeed, it was a Chak De moment for the Indian hockey team that can be seen as a renaissance of the national game of India.
Via: Hindu
