After two rounds of men’s matches at the Asian Games in Incheon, Malaysia and Pakistan both have two wins in two matches against their name and top their respective pool tables.
Malaysia controlled Singapore well in Saturday’s match and scored at a steady pace against the team that sits 26 places below them in the world rankings. Sunday’s clash with Bangladesh presented more of a challenge, as the Bangladeshis kept up with Malaysia until the fourth quarter, holding on to a 1-1 tie, but a four-goal blitz in the last fifteen minutes gave Arul Anthoni’s men the victory.
Pakistan faced Sri Lanka on Day 1 and powered to a 14-0 win, prompting coach Sheikh Shahnaz to declare himself happy with the performance, especially the even split between penalty corner and field goals. The following day however, the Greenshirts struggled against China, taking until late in the third quarter to get on the scoreboard, but eventually taking home three points.
China’s coach Cui Yingbiao explained the loss with his team being young and inexperienced – the Chinese men have not had any international matches in 2014 apart from a test series with Korea. “They start thinking about winning, and then they start making mistakes”, he said. Despite the defeat, China’s first day win over Oman keeps them a strong contender for the elusive semi-finals.
The third contender for the semi-finals in Pool B, next to Pakistan and China, will be India, who kicked their campaign off on Sunday with a resounding 8-0 win against Sri Lanka that puts them in second place at the end of Day 2, behind Pakistan and ahead of China.
In Pool A, Korea are at Malaysia’s heels, having won their first and only contest with a 12-0 shut-out against Singapore. Japan are the third team vying for the top spots in Pool A, and equally have only one match under their belts, which saw them defeat Bangladesh clearly on Saturday.
These first two days of hockey at the Asian Games in Incheon, Korea saw only the men compete. The women will be taking to the field for the first time on Monday, with China and Malaysia kicking of the tournament at 13:00 local time.
The 2014 Asian Games, officially known as the XVII Asiad, is the biggest sporting event held in Asia and is widely recognised as the second largest multi-sport event after the Olympic Games. The event is held every four years, with Hockey being one of 36 different sports set to feature in the Games. The Hockey competition in Incheon will be the biggest in the history of the Games, with ten men’s and eight women’s teams all battling it out for glory and Olympic qualification at the Seonhak Hockey Stadium.
The tournament - which offers a place at the Rio 2016 Olympic games to the men’s and women’s Gold medallists - is the first major international hockey competition to feature the groundbreaking 60 minute format, with the sport moving from two halves of 35 minutes to four 15-minute quarters with 40-second time-outs when a penalty corner is awarded and after a goal is scored.
The additional time-outs for penalty corners and after goals ensures that the new 60-minute format is actual playing time, eliminating the dead time associated with penalty corner set up while also allowing for teams to enjoy their goal celebrations. To learn more about the rule changes, click here.
Results
Day 1 – Men
Japan – Bangladesh 8-0 (3-0)
Malaysia – Singapore 8-2 (4-2)
Pakistan – Sri Lanka 14-0 (9-0)
Oman – China 0-5 (0-2)
Day 2 – Men
Malaysia – Bangladesh 5-1 (1-1)
Pakistan – China 2-0 (0-0)
India – Sri Lanka 8-0 (5-0)
Korea – Singapore 12-0 (4-0)
To keep up with the hockey in Incheon, join us at http://www.asiahockey.org/, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/asiahockey and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/asia_hockey. To find out more about all the action at the Asian Games Incheon 2014, please visit the official event website http://www.incheon2014ag.org/index.
