Hangzhou, Oct 3: Untested in the pool stages, the Indian men’s hockey team would look to guard against complacency against an unpredictable but dangerous South Korea in the semifinal of the Asian Games here on Wednesday.
Clear favourites to clinch the gold here which will guarantee a berth to next year’s Paris Olympics, world no.3 India looked menacing in the pool stages, scoring as many as 58 goals and conceding just five.
The Harmanpreet Singh-led side looked impressive from the start and scored goals at will to outplay Uzbekistan 16-0, Singapore 16-1, defending champions Japan 4-2, arch-rivals Pakistan 10-2 and Bangladesh 12-0 in its Pool A matches.
India were in a similar position heading into the semifinals at the 2018 Asian Games but went down 6-7 to Malaysia in shoot-off after the match ended in 2-2 draw.
While India last won the Asian Games gold in 2014 in Incheon, Korea’s last title came way back in 2006 Doha.
India captain Harmanpreet is aware about the job at hand.
“We have started strongly in the tournament and have won all our pool matches, which has given us a lot of confidence going into the final stages of the competition. We will enter into the semifinal with a positive mindset,” the ace drag-flicker said.
“But we are also cautious that we do not allow ourselves to take any opposition lightly and are well-prepared to adapt ourselves against our opposition whenever needed.”
Harmanpreet himself is in scintillating form as he scored as many as 12 goals so far in the tournament.
Initially the Indians struggled with penalty corners despite earning a handful but as the tournament progressed the likes of Harmanpreet, Varun Kumar and Amit Rohidas got their acts together to improved their conversion rate.
Besides penalty corners, the Indians also found the net consistently from field play as the likes of Mandeep Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Gurjant Singh and Abhishek combined well upfront. The only major concern for India will be the lack of involvement of the defensive line-up so far. (PTI)
