The third day of the hockey competition at the Asian Games marked the start of the men's event at the Al-Rayyan Hockey Field in Doha, Qatar. First to take to the pitch were teams from China and Oman, with China running out 6-1 winners in a fiery encounter thanks largely to captain Song Yi who blasted in four goals, including a stunning first half hat trick. In later Monday action, India defeated Bangladesh 6-0.
For India, the Asian Games are extremely important, as two Olympic tickets are at stake. The Indian team is together with Korea and Pakistan the favorite for these two spots, but Japan is a dangerous outsider.
India started the clash with Bangladesh very well, with captain Dilip Tirkey (one of the players voted in the 2006 WorldHockey All Star Team) scoring after three minutes of play. Tirkey finally scored 50 percent of the goals in the match won by India 6-0.
In the match against China, Oman started aggressively, committing several fouls early on, and when defender Shahab Rabeea Al Noobi pulled Song to the ground in the fourth minute as he ran through on goal, Song picked himself up to convert the resulting penalty stroke to give China a 1-0 lead.
From a 10th minute penalty corner, Song grabbed a second when he drag-flicked the ball to the bottom right corner of the goal beyond the outstretched legs of Oman's goalkeeper Dawood Asim Siddiq, and he completed his hat trick 15 minutes later with a brilliant drag-flick to the top left corner of the net from another penalty corner.
Song's feat marked the fastest hockey hat trick of the Games so far ÔÇô just 25 minutes, but Oman never gave up and continued to play a physical game. With two minutes remaining in the first half, however, China substitute Ye Peng was shown the first yellow card of the Games for dangerous play.
With China back to full strength at the start of the second half, Oman found themselves a man down five minutes after the restart when Shahab Rabeea Al Noobi was also shown a yellow card after a high tackle.
Enjoying the extra man advantage, Song claimed his, and China's, fourth goal of the match in the 45th minute after Jiang Xishang dribbled past two Omani players before setting him up.
Oman's hard work finally paid dividends five minutes later when Samir Haliyas Al Shibli's reverse stick shot beat Chinese goalkeeper Su Rifeng at his near post, but China recovered their four-goal advantage when Yu Yang made it 5-1 three minutes later.
With Omani goalkeeper Siddiq having been replaced after an injury, China completed the scoring in the 67th minute when Na Yubo's shot beat substitute goalkeeper Shabr Abdul Rahim Ismail.
Speaking after the match, Song said: ÔÇÿWe played better in the first half, we were more organized and we played at a fast tempo. In the second half, the coach made a few changes and we needed more time to adapt to the changes, thus slowing our game down. It's our first game and the win will give us more confidence to do better in the following matches.'
For all results and match reports, please click here.
Source: Asian Games, Doha, Qatar.
