The Indians here in Johor Bahru failed to translate their aggression into goals, and ended up losers again. Korea forged ahead thrice, Indians came from behind and levelled everything. When the score was 3-3, upcoming goalie Naveen even brought out a heart-stopping stop in the penalty stroke attempt by Korea.

Still, India fell in arrears in the extra time. Korean captain capitalized the god send opportunity that the team earned when a few seconds remained in the clock for the change over time of the extra time. All the Koreans assembled to see the goal in the penalty corner drill, and it was.

Korean captain Yang Ji Hun effected a high flick to the corner of the net, Naveen was on the other side. So, the bronze went to Korea.

“My players energy level was low, so we could not finish within the stipulated time”, said

That may be view of his side. Indians on the other hand did not lack in energy or enterprise. They played a hard game. They as usual questioned all the decisions of umpire, leaving no credibility for their questioning. They also got enough number of cards,keeping sync with with the tradition of this tournament. One yellow and three greens, compared to just a green by their rivals.

This cannot anyway take away the way the team fought for goals.

Harpreet Singh was shown red-card yesterday, but was allowed to play today.

Yesterday he took five penalty corners to post one goal, today it was different. He converted very first penalty corner. This helped India to revive their chances of coming back in to the team. Then came the great moment.

Chennai’s M. Gunasekar bounced on to a loose ball in the right flank, sprinted it into the circle, looking for gap, but was tripped. He got India a stroke, Amit Rohidass did no mistake. India two goals up.

India could have enlarged further. They broke the Korean defence often, but only to miss all their efforts for want of precision in the circle.

Within two minutes after resumption, a Korean solo put the Indians on the back foot.

The 15 minutes spell after the lead was Koreans. They held Indians to dance to their tune. Defenders Amit, Sampath and Harpreet got enough support in wing halves Ranjit, Gurider, and notably Gurdeep Mor. India survived.

Six minutes before the hooter, India levelled. Ramandeep Singh’s guile goal was followed in the last few seconds by a stroke, which Naveen stopped.

But the Indians heart stopped in the extra time, and the Koreans walked away with the bronze.