Indian eves lose 2-1 to Japan in bronze medal playoff
Image Courtesy: © Hockey India Media
Indian women's hockey team lost 2-1 to Japan in the bronze medal playoff match on the last day of the Four Nations invitational tournament at Darwin, Australia on Saturday. Vandana Katariya scored the goal for India, while Motomi Kawamura and Minami Shimizu scored for the Japan team.
India started the game off brightly, pushing Japan onto the back foot immediately, and penetrated the Japanese circle several times in the first five minutes. Japan rallied back though and slowly got control of the possession, as India dropped back to a more defensively compact gameplan. In the first real chance of the game though, Japan, attacking through a long cross field drive, were denied by a brilliant diving save from Savita in goal. The first quarter ended scoreless.
Early in the second quarter India suffered a setback as Anuradha Thokchom was awarded a green card for a foul and India were reduced to 10 players. Japan were awarded their third PC of the game, but India defended it away. Rani was green carded soon after, and India, went down a player again, but held their defensive shape and didn’t concede, ensuring the game was locked in a stalemate at half time.
India came out stronger in the second half and started pressing the Japanese back, holding possession and creating chances. The increased pressure paid dividends as Vandana Katariya got the opener for India in the 37th minute. A long cross field drive from Deepika, seemed to be headed towards safety, before Katariya crept in behind Japan’s Nagisa Hayashi and flicked in the ball to give India the lead. Almost from the restart though, Japan equalised through Motomi Kawamura and took the lead in the 42nd minute via Minami Shimizu.
India had a PC in the dying minutes of the game, but could not convert as Japan held strong to hold their lead and take the victory.
Speaking after the match, Chief Coach Neil Hawgood said, “The entire tournament has been a great test for us, to learn about our strengths and weaknesses as well as the opponents we will face in Rio. As a team, our defensive work has been solid and now we can build from there.”
Report Courtesy: © Hockey India Media
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