Indian hockey’s gold dream crushed by clinical Japan
FALLING SHORT Women’s team fails to repeat its 1982 golden performance as they go down 21 JAKARTA:
India’s bid to win a historic second gold medal in the Asian Games was thwarted by a resilient Japan, who overcame a ranking disadvantage to beat the 1982 champions 2-1 in the final. Japan joined an elite club, becoming only the fourth country after India, South Korea and China to win gold medal in the Continental showpiece.
India had looked brilliant in the preliminary league, beating defending champions South Korea 4-1 but could not capitalise on their chances against a welloiled Japan team and had to be satisfied with a silver medal, their second after 1998.
Japan gave a composed and determined display and scored ahead twice — opening their account through Miami Shimiza (11th) and surging ahead again in the 44thminute off another penalty corner converted by Motomi Kawamura after Neha Goyal scored India’s lone consolation goal five minutes before the halftime off a superb counter-attack.
NO EQUALISER
India made some valiant attempts in the final quarter but could not find the equaliser.
Earlier, China defeated South Korea 2-1 in the third place match to win the bronze medal.
With the Indian men’s team, the highest ranked outfit in the competition, losing to Malaysia in sudden death shootout in the semi-final, the onus was on the women’s team to provide some solace to the heartbroken hockey fans in the country.
India got off to a good start and created the first couple of chances but both Lalrimsiami and Navneet Kaur were thwarted by the Japanese. They also earned the first penalty corner but Gurjit Kaur’s attempt was blocked by Japanese goalkeeper Megumi Kageyama.
Japan, ranked 14th in FIH rankings, punished India, ranked 9th, earned their first penalty corner in the 11th minute and made it count when Minami Shimizu deflected in a flick by Mayumi Ono.
India’s Vandana Katariya had a chance to level scores but missed a shot. Japan led 1-0 at the end of the first quarter.
The Indians did not lose heart and though Japan managed to maintain a slight edge in the early parts of the second quarter, India mainly looked for counterattacks and capitalised on one such chance five minutes before half-time.
SWIFT COUNTERATTACK Skipper Rani along with Navneet Kaur launched a swift counter from the left flank. With the Japanese defenders scrambling back to guard the goal, Navneet beat the goalkeeper with a superb reverse hit, creating one of the easiest chances for Neha Goyal to deflect the ball into an open goal. The score read 1-1 at the long breather.
India continued to play well in the third quarter and created couple of chances but again it was Japan which scored against the run of the play to take 2-1 lead in the 44th minute.
Motomu Kawamura placed a superb shot off an indirect penalty corner routine as the Indian defenders failed to get into correct position.
JAPAN’S COMPOSED AND DETERMINED DISPLAY SAW THEM SURGE AHEAD TWICE AS INDIA FAILED TO CAPITALISE ON GOAL SCORING CHANCES.
DEFENCE SOLID
The quarter actually belonged to the Indians till that time as they created couple of good chances to score but both Udita an dVandana Katariya were thwarted by Japanese goalkeeper Kageyama.
Japan’s attempts to inject the ball into the shooting circle through long hits from the flanks did not prove successful but the penalty corner they earned following an error by Indian goalkeeper Savita changed the course of the match as Indian slumped to a defeat.