While India had hammered China in their opener, punching in seven goals, gaps in defence allowed a team ranked 21 positions below the Olympic bronze medallists to score two goals. The next game against reigning Asian Games champions Japan was worse with the forward line proving wasteful, failing to win the contest.
But from that point on, the Craig Fulton-coached outfit has been slowly coming together, just as they had done in Tokyo two years back, to stitch together impressive performances while beating Malaysia, South Korea and Pakistan.
On Friday, though, the Harmanpreet Singh-led outfit were at their marauding best, squeezing in goals through the smallest of gaps to overcome the only side they hadn’t beaten yet at the Asian Champions Trophy to hammer Japan 5-0 in the semi-final, setting up a final against Malaysia on Saturday.
Displaying their most complete performance yet in the six-team tournament at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium, India were incisive with their passing and had several more circle penetrations than Japan. More importantly, Harmanpreet and Co held their structure well, properly constructing chances while not losing possession. In addition, the home team did not give away even a single penalty corner (PC) to the world No.19 outfit.
Akashdeep Singh (19th), Harmanpreet (23rd), Mandeep Singh (30th), Sumit (39th) and Selvam Karthi (51st) scored once each to give the team, especially goalkeeper PR Sreejesh playing his 300th international, a precious gift by entering Saturday’s summit clash.
Having drawn against Japan during the round-robin stage, India were cautious initially as Japan are known to hit hard on the counterattack.
Less than two minutes into the semi-final, India earned the first PC of the match, but Harmanpreet’s flick was halted by the left foot of goalkeeper Takashi Yoshikawa. Japan went full press in the counterattack, forcing India to draw their entire team behind the 23m line twice in the first five minutes but after a few initial nervy minutes, India started pressing and playing mostly in the Japanese half.
Following a sluggish first quarter, India produced a brilliant team goal where the home team exchanged many passes, changed flanks and the angle of the attack before finally getting the ball through to Akashdeep in the circle, who cleverly put the ball inside to bring a smile to chief coach Craig Fulton’s face.
The Samurais were back on the counterattack, catching the Indian midfield off guard to make a circle entry before Krishan Bahadur Pathak kept the ball out. India didn’t hang back either, almost scoring a goal with a counter before a stick check handed India their second PC, one that Harmanpreet wasted no time in converting.
India made it 3-0 thanks to a delectable goal delivered by the individual brilliance of Player of the Match Manpreet Singh. The former India skipper got the ball around the 23m line and then he single-handedly dribbled past four Japanese players, before squeezing a shot toward the goal where Mandeep was on hand to deliver the final touch.
India went into the full press immediately in the second half, almost scoring their fourth when Akashdeep missed an open chance.
But Manpreet made the difference again, delivering a brilliant ball for Sumit who in a moment of magic used his skill and imagination, running down the goal-line and reverse-scooping the ball to score a sublime goal, arguably the best of the tournament.
The hosts kept creating more chances and that eventually resulted in a fifth and final goal when a one-two between Sukhjeet Singh and Selvam Karthi resulted in a goal for the local boy to the delight of the crowd.
Earlier in the day, Malaysia ousted defending champions South Korea in the other semi-final by a commanding 6-2 margin with Abu Kamal Azrai (3rd), Najmi Jazlan (9th, 21st), Faizal Saari (19th) and Shello Silverius (47th, 48th) scoring for the winners. Cheon Ji Woo (2nd) and skipper Jonghyun Jang (14th) scored South Korea.
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