Nagoya: The in-form Indian women’s hockey team placed itself on the verge of ending a 44-year wait for an Asian Games gold, beating South Korea 2-0 to enter the final of the continental showpiece here on Wednesday.
Ishika Chaudhary (44th minute) and skipper Salima Tete (48th) were the goal scorers for India.
India are now just a victory away from securing its only second Asian Games women’s hockey gold medal. The previous triumph came way back in the 1982 New Delhi games.
India will take on defending champions China in the final on Friday. China beat Japan 4-2 in a shoot-out after both sides failed to break the deadlock in the entire 60 minutes of the first semifinal.
South Korea will face Japan in the bronze medal match.
The Indians dominated the proceedings in the first two quarters and secured as many as eight penalty corners, but the Koreans produced a resolute defence to deny their opponents.
The play mostly took place inside the Korean half as India attacked in numbers from the onset and secured their first penalty corner in the second minute, but Deepika’s flick was brilliantly saved by Korean goalkeeper Seoyeon Lee.
Two minutes later, India secured another set piece, but Navneet Kaur faltered this time.
The Korean custodian made a brilliant save again in the 13th minute to keep out a deflection by Rutuja Pisal from a long ball.
It was raining penalty corners for India as a minute into the second quarter, three more of them came but failed to breach the Korean defence.
India had another set piece in the 21st minute, their sixth, but failed to stop the ball as the injection was not perfect.
There were two more penalty corners for India in the last two minutes of the first half, but the Korean defence stood tall as the deadlock continued after the first two quarters.
India continued to have the upper hand after the change of ends, but the Koreans stuck to their defensive structure to frustrate their opponents.
It took a beautiful variation from India to break the shackles in the 44th minute from a penalty corner.
Injector Ishika scored from a deflection from an indirect variation from Deepika from the set piece to surprise the Korean defence.
“I’m feeling very good now we are in the finals. This is what we wanted, and the energy was too good and we played united so it was a good game,” said Ishika after the match.
“After the (first goal) we were very happy, and we were like, ‘Go for the second goal. This (is) not over, so go for the next goal, next goal’. That’s why we scored the second one too,” she added.
Four minutes later, Salima doubled India’s lead with a fantastic field goal after a brilliant solo run from the right side.
It was, however, a woeful show by the Indians from penalty corners as they wasted two consecutive set pieces in the 57th minute as the Korean goalkeeper once again denied Deepika.
South Korea earned four back-to-back penalty corners at the end of the match but the Indians dished out strong defence to keep a clean slate ahead of the China game.
“We are not concentrating on what China will do. Obviously we’ll have a meeting about their structure and whatever, but, again, we will concentrate on ourselves. What we are going to do. And we will execute our skills well,” Ishika sounded confident.
