Asian Champions Trophy: Indian hockey eves ready for Korean challenge

The Indian women's hockey team will take on hosts Korea in their last round-robin clash of the 5th Women's Asian Champions Trophy here at the Sunrise Stadium on Saturday.

The team, led by defender Sunita Lakra, have remained unbeaten in the tournament so far having won against Japan (4-1), China (3-1) and Malaysia (3-2).

While playing the world number nine side in their home ground will be a challenging affair for the Indian team, it will serve as an ideal preparation for the final on Sunday where they will play Korea, who have won two matches (3-1 against Malaysia, 3-1 against China) and drawn one match (1-1 against Japan) in the round-robin stage.

"Korea is a good team, but our girls have played this tournament with a lot of confidence. We are not so bothered about this being their home ground but want to just focus on ourselves and carry forward the good momentum," stated Chief Coach Sjoerd Marijne.

The team have played this tournament with aggression and have showcased impressive attack. But playing a highly defensive team like Korea, India needs to ensure they don't make errors.

"The Koreans like to play high press. It will be important for us to not let that pressure affect our game and we need to ensure we don't make mistakes in our own half. Besides this, we will need to move the ball fast to create space," added the Chief Coach on the eve of the match.

While India were lethal against Japan and a higher ranked China, having taken a strong lead at the start of the match, India dropped their level against Malaysia and did not convert the chances they made is a matter of concern.

Marijne said, "It is not always easy to play against a team who play with 11 players in their circle. To make the game favorable to us, we need to score more PCs and ensure we don't miss easy goals. When that doesn't happen, the level starts dropping and we made some silly mistakes. But what is important is, we won that match."

On playing Korea on Saturday as well as playing against them on Sunday in the final, Marijne said it will be important to be smart in how they play and not exhaust themselves ahead of the title round.

"This match will give us good understanding of how they play and what changes we need to make ahead of the Final. We have to be smart in the way we play and ensure we don't exhaust ourselves too much," opined the Chief Coach.

India will take on Korea in their fourth pool stage match at the 5th Women's Asian Champions Trophy on May 19.