It took a 48th minute penalty stroke for the vastly experienced India to finally find a way past Japanese goalkeeper Yu Kudo and break the deadlock before registering a 2-0 win in the semifinal of the Asian Champions Trophy at the Rajgir Sports Complex here on Monday.
The host will now take on China in the final while Japan will face-off against Malaysia for the third place. But coach Harendra Singh and his team will have to come up with a much better performance in less than 24 hours if they hope to retain the crown.
HIGHLIGHTS | India vs Japan Women’s Asian Champions Trophy semifinal
Against a largely inexperienced Japan, the Indians were underwhelming, erratic and off-target. At other times, they were up against Kudo. Not surprisingly, she was named Player of the Match.
Japan was expected to pack its defence and hope for space in the middle to take chances on counter-attacks and it did. India was expected to be on the attack and keep the pressure on its rival and it did, starting as early as the 5th minute when Deepika’s shot went straight to Kudo. That was the beginning of India’s struggles and Kudo’s brilliance.
India’s first penalty corner came in the 11th minute but Navneet’s slap bounced away off a defender’s stick. India earned 16 PCs through the game without success. Half of them were variations but to no avail. “India kept changing their penalty corner (PC) set-up every time, there were subtle variations. But we managed to read them and save, which makes me happy,” a smiling Kudo, who idolises Savita and former England goalkeeper Maddie Hinch, admitted after the game.
No gameplan worked against a side that had parked the bus inside its 23-yard region and refused to either attempt an attack or give any space. The Indian strikers kept switching flanks, entered from either side, hugged the back line to shake off Japan’s markers, tried to snatch and tap in goalmouth melees to no avail. Harendra admitted Kudo had been the difference between just a win and half-a-dozen goals.
It was finally the slightest of shoulder pushes from Junon Kawai on Deepika just inside the circle that resulted in the stroke and Navneet made no mistake. In the 56th minute, Sunelita Toppo – impressive all day with her runs and pinpoint passes – finally dodged past a handful of defenders, controlling the ball along the backline and putting it through to an unmarked Lalremsiami, who managed to put it into the net.
Japan had a merely four circle entries, one of which resulted in a PC in the 57th minute with Kudo finally off the field but couldn’t convert.
In the other semifinal, China rode on an early lead to resist repeated pressure from Malaysia and win 3-1. Korea, meanwhile, finished fifth with a 3-0 win against Thailand.
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