Asian Champions trophy Hockey, India Beat Korea

Prathik Rathi

To say the Asian Champions Trophy has been gruelling on players would be a massive understatement. In what is a second summer in Chennai, where afternoon temperatures have been touching 40 degree Celsius in certain

pockets, it has tested the players to the core. With humidity too on the

higher side and breeze non-existent, teams have been struggling to maintain intensity.

In such extreme conditions, just weeks ahead of the Hangzhou Asian Games, Korea have endured three back-to-back 4:15 pm starts. Malaysia, who played the late evening game against India, which they lost 0-5, had only a 16-hour turnaround before they faced Japan in Monday’s first game.

In comparison, hosts India have had the luxury of not just playing all their matches at 8:15 pm, in the company of a slight breeze, but have also got enough recovery time for their players. By every passing outing, it is

becoming increasingly visible that India, as head coach Craig Fulton

mentioned, are peaking in terms of their fitness and intensity levels as they defeated Korea 3-2 in their fourth league match at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium.

For a team that is learning to fit into Fulton’s tactics, they couldn’t have asked for a more favourable scheduling. After choosing to use the

tournament as a dress rehearsal for the Asian Games, India are not wasting the opportunity. As midfielder Nilakanta Sharma had mentioned, during the Four- Nation event in Barcelona last month, the team appeared

puzzled at times, with midfielders especially caught in no-man’s land as they were yet to fully embrace Fulton’s defence-first approach.

While defending is Fulton’s first priority, the core of his coaching style is

built on the midfielders. When India go forward, the defensive midfielders are supposed to don the hat of an attacking midfielder and when the opponents have the ball, the attacking midfielders have to turn into DMs. Having allotted dual roles to each player, and taken out the full-press that India were so used to under Fulton’s predecessor Graham Reid, they are now beginning to get used to this new style of play. Instead of pressing

hard when the opponents have the ball, they get to positions where they can close down the space.

Of course, they are far from being in the right positions at all times, like the occasion when they let Kim Sunghyon score by providing him acres of

space to shoot. Even towards the end of the match, there were some nervy moments, with the midfielders appearing out of position as Korea picked

up pace, only for their finishing to be erroneous. Jihun Yang pulld one back in the 58th minute, but they fell short in the end.

Having got off the mark through Nilakanta’s goal when he guided the ball home from close range. The second, which helped India take the lead for

the second time came via a penalty corner, with Mandeep Singh getting on the scoresheet. It was an evening when India converted just one of the four penalty corners they earned. The captain also missed a penalty stroke in the final quarter.

Mandeep Singh scored the third, this one a nicely-constructed field goal which raised prospects of another big Indian win.