5th Women’s Asian Champions: South Korea defeat India to lift trophy

KalingaTV News Network

Donghae City: Despite a splendid performance, defending Champions Indian Women’s Hockey Team lost to hosts South Korea 0-1 in the Final match of the 5th Women’s Asian Champions Trophy Hockey at the Sunrise Stadium here on Sunday.

Youngsil Lee of South Korea scored the only goal of the match in the 24th minute.

The Sunita Lakra-led India’s defence was tested in the early stages of the match as South Korea started the game well, winning possession in the midfield and putting pressure on the Indian defence. However, India defended their lines well as they tried to attack the hosts on the counter in what was a well-matched first quarter for both the teams.

The hosts managed to maintain the lead till the last minute without giving any chance to India to score a goal.

Owing to the need of a goal, India replaced their Goalkeeper Savita with an outfield player and tried to up their ante, but South Korea’s man-marking in midfield made sure that they kept their lead intact as India failed to create a goal-scoring opportunity in the latter stages of the match.

India had entered the final after defeating Malaysia (3-2) on Thursday. Earlier, they had outplayed China (3-1) and Japan (4-1).

The win for South Korea saw them lift the title for the third time after having won in the 2010 and 2011 editions of the tournaments.

On the other hand, India finished Runners-up for the second time after having lost in the final of the 2013 edition to Japan.

Vandana Katariya of Indian was declared as the Player of the Tournament while youngster Lalremsiami was given the award for the Upcoming Player of the Tournament. Forward Navneet Kaur and Vandana Katariya were also the joint Top-scorers of the Tournament along with China’s Xiaoming Song.