Asian Games 2023: India hockey beat South Korea 5-3 to enter final; key players, challenges

India were 3-0 by the end of the first quarter. (File photo)

Conventional wisdom, if at all there is anything like that in an Asian Games men’s hockey semifinal, pointed to the fact that India would be walking, if not waltzing past South Korea. Wisdom, at times, is a double-edged sword. And India found that out, to a lot of heartburn at the 2018 Asian Games, going down to Malaysia, in what were similar circumstances. Even then, India had been unstoppable in the Pool matches. But campaigns come with subtle differences. And that, in the ultimate analysis, is the variance that fetches you a gold.

South Korea, for all their success when they had a certain Kim Sang-Ryul as their coach, was known as the Inveterate Disruptor. Plan anything and Sang-Ryul had an answer to it. Korea, over the years, especially in the period when they were consistently ranked in the top four nations, globally, after winning the 2000 Sydney Olympics silver medal, defended with vigour and counter-attacked at high pace. Disrupting teams, the way they played, killing the midfield, controlling the pace, was deeply ingrained in Korean sides.

The present coach Shin Seok-Kyo respects India but is not overawed by it. India may have scored 58 goals in the Pool matches. But the semifinal is a 60-minute battle that doesn’t always favour the team with talent or younger legs. On the face of it, Korea was a Dad’s Army – nine players above the age of 30, with four 35-plus and two, Jang Jong-Hyun and the captain Lee Nam-Yong, 39 and 40. It is incomprehensible to even think of playing modern hockey beyond 35 and the two players key to Korea’s success, their collective play and tactical nous were the oldest in the tournament.

Craig Fulton, the Indian coach, on the outside, easy-going, but a mind that has created, been part of the Belgian squad that won the 2018 World Cup, gold at the Tokyo Olympics, and runner-up at the 2023 World Cup. He understood the task at hand. “You got to win the tournament, you got to beat them all,” was his reply to the semifinal.

Before the semifinal, India had scored 58 with 34 field goals, 21 PCs and three coming off strokes. Korea, on the other hand, had a total of 42 goals with 14 field attempts. The crucial bit, the underlying difference, the one that India would look at very keenly was the 23 penalty corners that Korea has converted, more than the field goals. Jang Jong-Hyun, 39, who had scored a total of 17 goals, 13 off PCs and four of strokes, was the man India needed to be wary of. With thighs like oak trees, Jang controls the game from the back and at times, kills the pace to such an extent that he might be playing in a zone of his own, rotating, moving upfront, figuring out the channels and then with a flash, creating that pass which leads to a penalty corner. Dyed hair, bandana around his head, Jang is the ultimate disruptor; also, he is the highest goal-scorer in the tournament (17 goals).

Following him are Mandeep Singh (12) and Indian captain Harmanpreet Singh (11).

It’s the all-round excellence of the Indian squad, as Fulton, was referring to in terms of attack and defence that gives the Olympic bronze medallist the advantage and the edge. To be able to understand the flow of the game, bend it towards them, fire the aerials and those slap-shots from the back that invariably find Abhishek (8 goals) and Mandeep, are India’s advantage.

Mandeep Singh, radiates alertness, an instinct that makes him such a force in the opposition striking circle, whether it is assisting or creating space for that reverse hit or even going down on his knee to deflect in a PC. “Let any team come,” Mandeep said after India’s pool campaign ended with a 12-0 win over Bangladesh. “We have belief and faith in our structure, and we will stick to that. Maybe, make some changes even.”

From an all-out goal-scorer, time, different coaches have tempered Mandeep’s style of play and today, he believes that assists give him huge satisfaction. “In that a team gets involved,” he says. “The aerial ball, going back and working your way up, all that makes it a team commitment.”

For Mandeep, thinking back to the last campaign is delving into a non-story. “This is about winning gold, not taking silver or bronze.”

For an Indian team that is on a roll, it’s about making amends, playing fast, skillful hockey, understanding that a seat at Paris 2024 can be reserved at Hangzhou, that in the end, all calculations, equations are nothing if you don’t win or as Mandeep says, “Trust the structure.”