After two days of men's matches, the women’s competition kicked off in Incheon on Monday. Japan and Korea started their campaigns with solid performances and big wins, while the highest ranked team in the competition, China, only narrowly escaped a false start. Completing the quartet of teams ranked below 20, India also booked a win.
Japan thoroughly dominated their match against Hong Kong in all areas. However, the clear scoreline belies a low conversion rate, with the Sakura scoring their 14 goals from an astounding 71 shots on goal, including 7 goals from 23 penalty corners. Japan’s coach Yoo Seung Jin touched upon this after the match when he explained that he was happy with the result, but had been hoping for more goals in order to have an advantage over Korea through goal difference.
Korea today took to the field against Kazakhstan in their debut, and with a clinical performance imposed themselves by double digits. Kazakhstan fought valiantly, but could not compete with the Koreans’ superior technical skills, experience and physical fitness.
Earlier in the day, world number 5 China had unexpectedly struggled against world number 21 Malaysia. Excellent defensive work kept Malaysia in the running until midway through the third quarter, and in the end, it was Wu Mengrong’s lone goal that made all the difference. Malaysia’s coach Md Nasihin Nubli Ibrahim said he was pleased with a great game and was already looking forward to the shift from the defence focus to attacking mode for the games against Thailand and India.
The Indian Eves for their part faced Thailand today, and like China were less dominant than one might have expected from the 40 places wide gap in world rankings between the two teams. A gritty performance from the Thai ladies met an Indian team struggling with finishing, and while the Thai team could not threaten the Indian victory at the end, they certainly showcased a vast improvement compared to past appearances. Thailand’s coach Bae Young Woo, a native Korean, credits a big part of the progress made to the time the team has spent in Korea training and gaining match experience.
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 3 – Women
China – Malaysia 1-0 (0-0)
Japan – Hong Kong 14-0 (7-0)
India – Thailand 3-0 (1-0)
Korea – Kazakhstan 11-0 (6-0)
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.
