India won the Women’s Junior Asia Cup for the first time

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New Delhi. India won their maiden title at the Women’s Junior Hockey Asia Cup 2023 by defeating Korea 2-1 in a thrilling final match on Sunday at Kakamigahara, Japan.

Annu (22′) and Neelam (41′) scored a goal each for India while Seon Park (25′) scored the lone goal for Korea in a thrilling final match played on Sunday.

It was a collective team effort from the Indian junior women’s team that eventually paved the way for their victory in this crucial encounter. This is the first time that India has won the Women’s Junior Asia Cup.

India started aggressively by winning a penalty corner in the opening minute of the game, but failed to capitalize on it. However, Korea swung the momentum in their favor by counter-attacking and controlling ball possession. They also won an early penalty corner but Neelam made a goal-line clearance to deny Korea. Despite aggressive play from both teams, the first quarter ended goalless.

Korea continued their offensive in the second quarter as well and thus put India on the back foot. Korea also got a few penalty corners, but, India not only stood strong in defense to keep out the opposition’s attackers, but also put Korea under pressure by taking the lead through Annu (22′), Annu calmly Converted the penalty stroke into a goal.

However, India’s lead did not last long as Seon Park (25′) equalized for Korea through a well-placed shot from inside the D. There were no further goals in the second quarter as both teams went into the half break with the score at 1–1.

The second half of the match began with Korea focusing on keeping possession, while the Indian team went on the counter-attack and found the advantage in the form of Neelam (41′), who brilliantly converted a penalty corner to give India the lead. Forwarded. The third quarter is over. The score was 2-1 in favor of the Indian team.

To protect their lead, India focused on defending and controlling the pace of the game while maintaining possession of the ball in the fourth quarter.

Korea, on the other hand, made some unforced errors and misdirected passes in their desperation to find the equaliser. In the end, India stood strong and succeeded in their strategy to win the summit clash 2-1.

After the final, India’s junior women’s team captain Preeti said, “After the 1-1 draw in the round-robin stage, we were acutely aware of the specific areas that Korea needed to overcome for us.” A lot happened in the final match. However, we knew that as a team we had to play our best game to achieve something special and we did just that. We are looking forward to making our country proud.”

–IANS

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