Uthappa’s last-minute goal helps India beat South Korea

Uthappa’s last-minute goal helps India beat South Korea
BANGALORE: A productive team meeting and a purposeful show on the field saw India edge past South Korea 2-1 for their win in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament in Ipoh on Friday.

SK Uthappa scored the match-winner in the final minute of a thrilling contest, deflecting the ball in off Tushar Khandker.

Earlier, Sandeep Singh put India ahead off a penalty corner in the 11th minute before Nam Hyun-Woo’s low penalty corner flick in the 66th minute helped South Korea restore parity.

Chief coach Michael Nobbs said the seeds of victory were sown in the meeting ahead of the match. “The boys admitted to the mistakes they committed. Too many unforced errors were causing the problems and they said the same thing. The deep defence continues to be our main problem but the forwards realised could have helped more,” he told TOI.

“The first half was as clinically perfect as it could be. The Koreans had one shot at goal and five circle penetrations and no penalty corners. It was textbook and the patterns we played worked perfectly. The second half was a little different and they pressed a little,” the Aussie said, as he analysed the match.

“The problem with trying to use a style of play that we have only just started to learn is that it takes time. There were occasions in the second half when we returned to the same old patterns. I tried to get the message out to the team that we need to change the pattern but it didn’t work. This is something we need to focus on.”

Nobbs was all praise for Uthappa for the “unbelievable deflection goal.” The SAI lad scored off a counter-attack that began after ‘keeper Bharat Chetri’s save at the top of circle. The move surprised the Korean defenders and even before they could regroup, Uthappa had relayed the ball in.

In the other match, New Zealand coasted to a 5-2 victory over Argentina.

Results:

India: 2 (Sandeep Singh 12, SK Uthappa 70) bt South Korea: 1 (Nam Hyun-Woo 66).

New Zealand: 5 bt Argentina: 2.

Malaysia: 3 drew with Britain: 3.