Asian Champions Trophy: India concede ‘soft goals’ in 7-2 win over China | Hockey News

On a night when India looked like scoring each time they went forward, against an opponent, China, that’s a lightweight in men’s hockey, it was the couple of goals they conceded that revealed a lot more about the team than the seven they netted.
For, it reflected once again the team’s tendency to get complacent and brought out the old habits of getting a needless card and the consequent suspension. Both makes led to the hosts conceding goals – ‘soft goals’, coach Craig Fulton called them in his half-time assessment.
Thankfully for Fulton, the errors did not cost India a lot. They were far too superior to China and eventually won a handsome 7-2 scoreline in their opening match of the Asian Champions Trophy at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium in Chennai.
They scored half-a-dozen in the first half hour itself, with drag-flickers Harmanpreet Singh and Varun Kumar converting two penalty corners each, while Sukhjeet Singh and Akashdeep Singh scored a goal apiece.
But against compact defences and more stubborn opponents like Malaysia and South Korea, who might not be so happy to oblige as China’s back-line was, makes like the ones India committed on Thursday could prove fatal.
The first occurred in the 17th minute when India were 4-0 up. Midfielder Sumit lost possession deep in China’s half. China were quick to counter launching a high ball down the left sideline. It floated harmlessly in the direction of Varun, who was under no pressure whatsoever as China did not commit men forward.
But Varun failed to control the ball, and E Wenhui was quick to capitalise. With the rest of the Indian team pushing forward, Wenhui ran in behind Varun and was through on the Indian goal. He entered the ‘D’ from the left, beat defender Jugraj Singh and slotted the ball past Krishan Pathak.
Varun made amends a minute later, scoring from a penalty corner. But India once again conceded a soft goal. Defender Jarmanpreet Singh picked up a yellow card, meaning he was sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes. China took advantage of having an extra man on the field and pressed forward. They were rewarded after Gurjant Singh pushed a Chinese attacker from behind, thus conceding a penalty corner that was masterfully converted Jiesheng Gao.
Known for spotting even the tiniest of on-field incidents, it’s unlikely Fulton would let these makes go unnoticed. They would be the biggest learnings from the match that otherwise was a stroll in the park for India.
On the attacking front, India ticked nearly all boxes. They scored goals from penalty corners, found the back of the net from open play, pressed high and had a shot on the Chinese goal nearly every second minute.
Drag-flickers Harmanpreet and Varun made the most of the yawning gap between the left hand side of China’s goalkeeper and the man guarding the post successfully targeting the area. India had a high penalty corner conversion rate, scoring from 5 out of the 9 corners largely due to the poor positioning of the Chinese defenders.
But India did well to earn those corners putting the Chinese defence under relentless pressure. Vivek Sagar Prasad had a memorable evening and former captain Manpreet Singh, starting as an attacking midfielder for the first time since the World Cup debacle earlier this year, was a livewire in the attacking third, where he got plenty of support from the rest of his teammates.
“It could have been better. We missed a couple of good opportunities but the entire team did well. This is the first match and we can do well in the next matches,” Manpreet said after the match.
Fulton would have liked to see his team be a little more patient on the ball and recycle possession when there was no opening. His team, instead, tried to force their way into the ‘D’ which at times resulted in squandered opportunities. That was something, Manpreet said, the team would iron out in the matches to come.
He didn’t look too bothered that. But he did warn that the team must shore up the defence. “Tomorrow we are playing Japan and then we have Malaysia, South Korea and Pakan. We can’t concede these kind of easy goals.”