Passionate fans don’t only see Win or Loss , what they see is whether their team has displayed good and improved hockey to match the standard of top ranked teams.
India has marched on to the finals but Coach Harendra Singh needs to take the team back to the drawing board.
The Great Wall of Japan -Yu Kudo
Any hockey pundit would have easily guessed before the match that the lesser experienced Japanese team would Park The Bus as they say it and focus on counters, and so did they.
Indian Girls were expected to attack from the word go and they did the same with the first D-entry coming within the first 5 minutes of play thus also starting the tussle between Indian Strikers Deepika, Navneet, Salima and Japanese goalie Yu Kudo, who was in beast mode.
Indian defence was hardly tested and the game went on in Japanese court with India dominating possession and circle entries.
Indian mid field consisting of Skipper Salima Tete, Lalremsiami and Neha looked a fully oiled machine with their impressive playmaking but all their efforts kept on going in vain either by lapse in finishing by the forwards or by the individual brilliance of Yu Kudo , who was awarded the player of the match for her countless saves between the bars.
PC Conversion
Pundits say modern hockey is won by Penalty Corner conversions, where the girls lacked. Indians were awarded as many as sixteen PCs throughout the game with zero conversion. The girls tried multiple variations in PC but none could go past the alert eyes of Yu Kudo.
India received 2 PC in first quarter but denied from goal, 3 back to back PC in second quarter but failed due to improper execution, repeated PCs in 21st minute but Deepika failed to beat Yu Kudo’s right leg , 2 PCs in the 3rd quarter wasted, Udita denied from another PC goal by Yu Kudo moments before the end of 3rd quarter.
Deadlock Broken
It took a gentle push by Japanese defender Junon Kawai on Deepika inside the D to earn a penalty stroke and Navneet made no mistake to break the stalemate and bring smiles in the faces of thousands of fans who assembled at the Rajgir Stadium, Bihar and all of India.
In the 56th minute Suneeta making an impressive run dodging the defenders and showing amazing ball control skills passed the ball to Lalremsiami who smashed it into the net to bring a field goal and take India to an unbeatable 2-0 lead.
Off to Finals
Coming from the disappointment of not qualifying for the Paris Games ,Indian team would take it as an opportunity to rejuvenate when they face the tough Chinese Challenge in the finals on Wednesday.
The Chinese side who come from a 3-1 thumping win against Malaysia in the Semi Final look a formidable side.
Inability to convert PCs and field goals would cost India heavily against them unlike against Japan. Also another concern is that the Indian defence is yet to be tested.
But as they say , It’s not the best team that wins a tournament but the team that finds out a way to somehow win does.
Fingers Crossed , Lets Gun on our Indian Girls to create a Chak de moment when they face China in the finals.
