Indian women’s hockey team won bronze by defeating defending champion Japan.

Just two days after losing the semi-finals, the Indian women’s hockey team made a comeback with great fighting spirit and defeated Japan 2. Won bronze medal in Asian Games by defeating 1. Coach Yanke Shopman could not control her tears on the field even after the hooter and seeing the players jumping with joy, it became clear what this bronze means to the team.

0 to China in the semi-finals. India’s hopes of qualifying directly for the Paris Olympics were dashed with the 4-match defeat. Despite this, the team bravely faced the challenge of Japan and won the bronze medal match. In this way, the Indian team avenged the 0-1 defeat suffered by Japan in the final of the last Asian Games.

For the Indian team, which finished fourth in the Tokyo Olympics, Deepika scored in the fifth minute and Sushila Chanu scored in the 50th minute, while for Japan, Yuri Nagai scored the only goal in the 30th minute of the match. The Indian team started the match with a fearless game and it got the benefit in the fifth minute. Deepika gave a great start to the team by converting the penalty stroke into a goal. The Indian players continued to attack but conceded several penalty corners. However, the team was struggling to convert it into goals.

Japan also counter-attacked but the defense of Savita Poonia’s team was excellent. In the second quarter, both the teams tried to keep the ball in their possession for a longer time and during this both the teams were successful in reaching each other’s circle. Just before half-time, captain Nagai converted a penalty corner to make the score 1-1. The ends changed after the intermission but there was not much change in the game of both the teams.

The game of check-mate continued between the players in the midfield. Both teams created some chances but failed to capitalize on them. The Indian team used its full strength in the last quarter. The team got its advantage with a penalty corner. During this, Japan’s goalkeeper Elika Nakamura made a brilliant save on the flick of vice-captain Deep Grace Ekka. After this, Vaishnavi Vitthal Phalke missed the goal on the rebound.

The Indian front line continued to put pressure on Japan. The team got another penalty corner in the 50th minute. Sushila gave India the lead by scoring a goal after receiving a pass from Deep, beating the Japanese goalkeeper. After this, the Indians won some more penalty corners but the team could not convert them into goals.

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