New Delhi: At three points each and with just one game to play, India and Korea can't afford to lose when the two Asian hockey giants meet in the crucial Pool C encounter of the Junior Men's Hockey World Cup here on Tuesday.
India came back in contention with a nervy 3-2 win over Canada on Saturday after being on the losing side of the same scoreline in their campaign opener against the Netherlands. Korea, on the other hand, thrashed Canada 7-4 before going down to the Dutch 2-3.
Those outcomes resulted in an early exit for the Canadians and entry into the quarter-finals for the Dutchmen. However, the fate of Indians and the Koreans depends on the result of the deciding game of Pool C on Tuesday.
But the scales are tilted slightly in favour of the Koreans, who, by virtue of their big win over Canada, have a better goal difference than India. The Koreans have forced nine goals and let seven in, which gives them a goal difference (GD) of +2. In contrast, India, who have fired five times and have an equal number of goals against them, have a GD of zero.
That equation leaves Korea needing just a draw to join Australia as the second quarter-finalists from Pool C, while nothing less than a win will enable India climb to the second spot and leave the Koreans behind. And India captain Manpreet Singh is fully aware of those statistics.
"We realise that the losing team misses out on the quarter-finals; hence an important match for both the teams. The team is practising very hard and working on all the strategies which will help ensure a win," the Indian skipper said.
India thumped Korea 6-1 at the Sultan of Johor Cup earlier this year, but Manpreet said it's no reason to take the nimble-footed Koreans lightly. "While we beat Korea 6-1 in the Sultan of Johor Cup this year, we are still not ruling out the fact that they are playing very good hockey and should not be taken lightly tomorrow," he reckoned.
Team's coach Gregg Clark said that he is confident of India's chances and the team's fighting character, while admitting that his boys need to be more accurate. "The Koreans are a good side; they have consistently performed well in the tournament. The match will be difficult but we have confidence in ourselves. The team showed character last night. Our performance has constantly improved. But we got to be more accurate in our next encounters," Clark said.
India played attacking hockey against the Canadians but were guilty of missing a lot of goal-scoring opportunities, and avoided an early exit from the tournament only with a 69th minute penalty-corner (PC) strike by Gurjinder Singh.
India's two matches have highlighted the team's weakness in converting promising moves into goals, while in Gurjinder they have a PC specialist whose flicks have a high success percentage. That perhaps could be India's strategy against the Koreans, to earn PCs and give themselves a better chance of scoring through Gurjinder.
But you can't rule out the talent of forwards Manpreet Singh and Ramandeep Singh; however, they haven't yet been able to show the coordination required to find the goals. Tuesday will be a good time to do that.
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