India VS Korea

India beat Korea 3-2 in the ongoing Sultan Azlan Shah tournament, and has 7 points from 3 games. The team is pretty sure to make it to the finals of the tournament. Just Australia as a tough competitor in the way(cannot discard Malaysia though)we can be assured that the team will make it to the finals. It was a good game for Bharat Chetri who did a great job in the post and helped India to win the game. There were as many as 17 penalty corners in the game and Korea had 11 of them. Bharat’s work in the post is a good situation for the team. We have three good goalies to rely on. to
India, who are without expert drag-flickers Sandeep Singh and Diwakar Ram in the tournament, earned seven penalty corners and failed to convert any. Dhananjay Mahadik missed several opportunities. Indian team needs a penalty corner specialist. Giving break to Sandeep Singh might be a good idea, but Diwakar Ram should have been played. The team needs one good drag-flicker.
Arjun Halappa is having a good time out there and opened the scoring in 10th minute of the game. Tushar Khandekar and Shivendra Singh scored other two goals for the Indian side in 45th minute and 60th minute respectively. The defense of the Indian team was good today where they outplayed the Korean team several times. But the no. of penalty corner conceded by the team is a worry. 11 penalty corners are too much.
India next face Australia tomorrow, and that game will help decide the result of final(probably if both teams make it to finals). Australia also has inexperienced side in the tournament so India has a great advantage over the Australian team to beat them in the game tomorrow.
Australians play an attacking game and the Indian team should beat them in their own game, i.e. attack from the first minute. Indian forwards should DESIRE. Desire is the most important factor in the success of any athlete. And if the whole team plays with desire we can win the title again because:
“In sports, you simply aren’t considered a real champion until you have defended your title successfully. Winning it once can be a fluke; winning it twice proves you are the best.”