A young Indian team suffered its second
straight defeat in Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, this time against the Korean
side with the score line of 2-1 in the round robin encounter. India, who
lost their first game against Australia 3-4, failed to hit the top gear
in the match while the Koreans made most of the Indian mistakes.
The early part of the game was dominated
by India but they failed to put on a major attack to threaten the
Korean goal despite having most of the possession. As the game
progressed, the play shifted to the midfield with neither of the teams
able to unlock the opponent’s defence. The play was quite uneventful in
the first 20 minutes of the game with neither team taking any chances.
When it looked like the half would end
with no goals for either side, Koreans launched wave after wave of
attack, pressurizing the Indian defence. Korea won 5 penalty corners in
the first half of the game, three of which were due to the mistakes of
Harbir Singh. In the 29th minute of the play, Korea finally converted a
penalty corner to take well deserving 1-0 lead. Korea continued
to attack after the goal, but failed to score. Indian keeper PR Sreejesh
was having a great time under the sticks as he thwarted attack after
attack of the Korean team. If not for Sreejesh, Indian team would have
been 3-4 goals down by the end of the first half. Korea had a total of
5 shots at Indian goal in the first half while the Indian team had none
to show in response.
After a sloppy
first half, Indian team responded well in the second half and started
creating chances to score. A beautiful combination between Malak and
Mandeep brought India on level terms in the 39th minute of the game with
Malak Singh scoring the equaliser. Manpreet Singh ran into the Korean
half on a break-away move and passed it to Mandeep who made a
superb overlapping run from the right. He then pushed the ball for Malak
in front of the goal, and the youngster made no mistake to make it 1-1.
With that goal, India’s confidence increased and the team started
creating moves to get a lead. The attacks earned India 4 penalty corners
but poor conversion by Rupinder Pal Singh meant India failed to make
the most of them.
India’s inability
to convert the penalty corners and a green card to midfielder Manpreet
Singh gave Korea a chance to punish India. Down to 10 men, India came
under pressure from the Koreans and Kang scored in the 60th minute to
give Korea a 2-1 lead. Indian strikers continued to create chances and
won a couple of penalty corners but Rupinder failed to score while
India’s other penalty corner expert Gurjinder Singh sitting on the
bench, waiting for his turn to play.
With just a couple
of minutes to go, India succumbed under pressure and failed to create
any chances to level the scores. Koreans cut the Indian supply in the
last few minutes to earn their first victory of the tournament.
After a second consecutive defeat in the tournament, India will now face arch-rivals Pakistan on 12th March.
Final Result:
Korea – 2 (Kang Moon Kweon, Kang)
India – 1 (Malak Singh)
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