Legendary rivals India and Pakistan will fight it out for the Gold medal and a place at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games after victories in their Asian Games semi-final matches against Korea and Malaysia respectively on Tuesday (30 September).
A solitary strike from Akashdeep Singh gave India a 1-0 win over host nation Korea, while Pakistan were held 0-0 by Malaysia before emerging triumphant 6-5 in a shoot-out to set up a dream final between the two most iconic nations in Asian hockey. With an Olympic ticket up for grabs the stakes simply could not be higher, ensuring that Thursday’s final is likely to be nothing short of spectacular.
Defending champions Pakistan have history very much on their side, having lost only once to India in eight Asian Games finals. Pakistan were victorious when the two sides clashed in the pool phase of this year’s competition, but India currently sit two places above their opponents in the FIH World Rankings at nine and will be determined to land their first Asian Games title since the 1998 event in Bangkok, Thailand.
India were the more active and aggressive team in the early stages of their semi-final meeting with Korea. The Indians were able to create danger where the Koreans could not, and it seemed to be only a matter of time until the opening goal would arrive. It took until the end of the third quarter, with Akashdeep Singh brilliantly firing home with his back to the goal. Korea pushed for the elusive equaliser, but they could not get close to the India goal before eventually running out of time.
India’s coach Terry Walsh said after the game that he was most happy with the fact that India managed to bring energy to the game throughout the 60 minutes and that the players had stepped up their performance levels, learning to cope with “being the hunted rather than the hunter”.
Despite the lack of goals, the Pakistan versus Malaysia was a thrilling contest featuring plenty of high-quality, attacking hockey ahead of a characteristically dramatic shoot-out. The key moment arrived in the sudden pairings, with Pakistan’s Rashid Mehmood netting the winner moments after a costly miss from Tengku Ahmad.
Ahead of his team’s final showdown with India, Pakistan coach Sheikh Shahnaz suggested that his team will have a mental edge due to their win in the pool round.
In the match for 7th place, Oman defeated Bangladesh in a lively fight that had the crowd hold their breath. Bangladesh scored early, and after a prolonged exchange of blows with many chances but no goals, Oman finally got onto the scoreboard in the third quarter. A quick-fire double moved Oman ahead, but Bangladesh countered with the equaliser less than two minutes later. A penalty corner at the end of the third quarter finally put Oman ahead again, and despite a passionate fight by Bangladesh, they held on to the lead until the end of the fourth quarter. Oman thus took seventh place in the competition and Bangladesh eighth, ahead of Singapore and Sri Lanka.
Results
Tuesday, 30 September 2014 – Men
7/8th place: Bangladesh – Oman 2-3 (1-0)
Semi-Final: Korea – India 0-1 (0-0)
Semi-Final: Pakistan – Malaysia 0-0 (0-0) 6-5 shoot-out
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