Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist Indian men’s hockey team started its new cycle with a 2-2 draw against a buoyant Korea in their opening match of the Asian Champions Trophy men's hockey tournament in Dhaka, Bangladesh on Tuesday (December 14).
Playing their first tournament after the historic Tokyo Olympics campaign, India started on a positive note and scored in the fourth minute of the fixture through Lalit Upadhyay before vice-captain Harmanpreet Singh converted a penalty corner in the 18th minute to secure a much-coveted two-goal cushion.
Trailing 0-2, Korea fought back after the change of ends and scored through Jonghyun Jang in the 41st minute and Sunghyun Kim in the 46th minute to surprise the favourites and draw level.
Although it was India who dominated the proceedings in the first and second quarter with better ball possession (58 percent) and higher number of circle penetrations (14 for India and 8 for Korea), the Korean side rallied on a strong defensive structure in the third and fourth quarter to deny any opportunity for India to score.
In the 53rd minute India did score a goal but a referral from the Korean team ruled it out. At the fag end of the game India managed to get a couple of penalty corners but failed to convert a single one.
Jaehyeon Kim in front of the Korean goal was the real difference between the two sides as he thwarted numerous shots to help his side ensure a point from the game.
Indian team with a bunch of youngsters would want to prove their mettle in the Asian Champions Trophy campaign this time as they have a perfect blend of young blood and experienced players.
India have won this prestigious event thrice since its inception in 2011 and have won the previous two editions held in 2016 in Kuantan, Malaysia and 2018 in Muscat, Oman. In the last edition of this event, India had to jointly lift the title along with Pakistan as the final match was called off due to incessant rains.
Post-match, skipper Manpreet Singh expressed his disappointment but at the same time was confident the team would bounce back from this draw.
"Korea were really good today with their defence and their goalkeeper was quite outstanding. We expected them to give us a hard time and hence it was important we started well. But we couldn't keep up that momentum going into the third and fourth quarter. Nonetheless, this was the first match of the tournament and we surely will bounce back tomorrow against Bangladesh," stated the India Captain.
