Japan defeats India by 1-0 to ride into ESB Electric Ireland FIH Champions Challenge I
Ai Murakami scored the game-winner and had an assist, as the women’s hockey team of Japan marked a crucial victory over India by 1-0 in the quarter-final match of the ESB Electric Ireland FIH Champions Challenge I. The nail-biting contest between the two
important squads was held at the University College Dublin (UCD) in Irish city of Dublin on June 23, 2011.
Interestingly, Japan and India both the squads contested the quarter-final with holding same four points in the group fixtures. Both teams have a similar record of one win, one draw and one loss.
The Japanese women on their way to quarter-final defeated USA in the event-opener by a single goal, 2-1. They were beaten by Russia by four goals, 5-1 in the second match, and managed a draw in the third match against Scotland, 1-1.
On the other hand, the Indian team lost the first game in the hands of Ireland by a single goal, 2-1. India recovered with the passage of time and defeated Azerbaijan by five goals, 6-1 before drawing a competition against Spain at 1-1.
Both the Asian teams entered on the field with a mission to book a berth into the semi-final of the eight-nation tournament. However, no single goal was scored in the first half of play. The first 35 minutes of play was filled with lot of strikes and counter-strikes,
but neither Japan nor India succeeded in scoring a goal.
Despite the fact the attackers from Japan and India were recurrently approaching the defence-line of either team. But the defenders from the two teams were also at their best and made numerous saves in order to keep the thrill alive. The first round was
completed with India and Japan at 0-0.
Following a short break, both the quarter-finalists started the game in same way as was in the first. However, this time the techniques were quite different. The Indian women went on defensive while Japanese adopted attacking approaches. However, the duo
Asian Tigers were failed to score a goal in the first 30 minutes of play.
With five minutes left onto the clock, when Ai Murakami received a well-organised pass from Keiko Manabe and made a dive into the 25-Yard line to hit a shot into the Indian goal-post and they took the game into their favour.
The Indian side though attempted to make a comeback into the game in the last minutes, but failed to get an equaliser and lost the game at 1-0. With victory, the Japanese side moved into the semi-final round.
Tags: