Junior Asia Cup W: India lose to Japan, to play against Rep. of Korea for Bronze
Changzhou (China), 12 September 2015: Indian Junior Women Hockey team today went down fighting 2-2 (2-3 Shoot Outs) against Japan in the Semi-Final match of 7th Women’s Junior Asia Cup 2015. The two goal scorers for India were Deep Grace Ekka and Renuka Yadav. India will now play against Republic of Korea in the Bronze medal match on 13th September 2015. This will be a crucial match for Junior Women Team for Junior World Cup qualification.
The first half started with India’s surprise attack on Japanese side and very soon they earned a penalty corner. Deep Grace Ekka received the shot and hit hard into the goal-box to score the first goal of the match in the 4th minute.
Japan took some time to recover and counter-attacked on the Indian side. After few charges, they earned a penalty corner but Indian goal-keeper Inderpreet Kaur thwarted the attack. Japanese got another penalty corner in 18th minute and this time captain Yukari Mano converted, ensuring that the game equalised at 1-1. 25th minute and midfielder Renuka Yadav sneaked into Japanese half with her quick moves and sent the ball to the nets to score the second goal for her team. After the 2-1 lead, Indians managed to control the match again and maintain the samescore-line till the end of first half.
The second half started with more aggression from both sides as both the teams stepped on the ground with their game-plans. India soon earned a penalty corner but failed to materialise it. In the next moment, Japan counter-attacked and earned a penalty corner and was perfectly saved by Inderpreet. In the 57th minute, Japan’s Ayane Hirahara entered into the Indian D and scored the second goal for her team. Both the teams post that were seen to take one up in the game but failed to materialise on the opportunities. With the game tied at 2-2 at the end of regulation time the match entered the shoot out phase.
Navjot Kaur and Preeti Dubey successfully converted the opportunities in Shoot outs whereas Navneet Kaur, Deep Grace and skipper Rani failed to score and eventually lost the match by 2-2 (2-3 SO).
The finals will be between China and Japan.
Today’s Match Results
Semi-final 1: China – Rep. of Korea 1-0
Semi-final 2: Japan – India 2-2 (3-2 SO)
5-6th place : Malaysia – Thailand 3-1
7-9th place : Singapore – Chinese Taipei 1-0