India wins bronze in Asian Games
India compensated for its loss of the Asian Gold medal to some extent by bagging bronze at Aoti Stadium Guangzhou on Thursday 25th Nov, after defeating South Korea; a four times winner, by 1-0.
India’s eight years long wait of winning Asian Games medal ended when Tushar Khandekar scored a field gold in the 39th minute. The deadlock was broken in the 39th by Khandekar, who stood intact in front of the Korean goal, pushed in a long diagonal
hit into the D sent in by Gurbaj Singh, for the all-important goal at the Aoti hockey field. Indian goalkeeper Bharat Chetri also played a very important role by protecting important penalty corners, in which Koreans were very expert with variations. South
Koreans had many chances to make their way to win, as in the first opening half they earned two penalty corners and one in the second, but all were futile because of Chetri’s fine stint under the Indian bar.
This is for the first time for South Koreans since 1986 that they ended without a medal. The eight- time Olympic Champions had earned Asian Games titles in 1966 and 1998 respectively. After losing out 4-3 to Malaysia in the Asian Games semi-final on Tuesday,
India came back with more strength and determination of winning Asiad bronze.
Last time Indian men’s hockey team made a podium finish was back in 2002 Busan Games where they won silver. The Indian’s were unable to win the Asiad hockey for the first time in 2006, resulting in a failure to qualify the Beijing Olympics two years back.
In first half, Indian’s pace was a bit down against the extremely agile South Koreans, but in the second half they managed to take over the game by stroking the first goal which lead to their eventual victory. Indians did not allow South Korea to break
in their D, except once when the ball rose off the stick of Bharat Chikara as he tried to block a through pass from Kim Youngjin and hit the Korean inside the penalty circle, as a result of which a penalty corner was awarded to the Koreans. However, Korea
remained unlucky in converting this penalty corner into an equalizer.
India could have scored more goals by availing golden opportunities which they missed. They wasted two penalty corners, one of which was taken indirectly when Sandeep Singh passed on the ball to Dhananjay Mahadik but he made a weak push which could not result
in a goal, as Korean defenders and captain Lee Nam young were active enough to make a goal- line save in the 24th minute.
Indian coach Jose Brasa, whose contract comes to completion at the end of India’s campaign in Asian Games, was happy with the overall performance of Indian team.
"We played very good hockey but I am not happy that we are not going back with the gold medal. Today we controlled the game very well and did not allow the Koreans to touch our D at all in the second half. We had the opportunity to score the second and
third goals," he said about the missed chances in the second half.
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