Listless Hockey from Indian Men in the knock-out stages crushes their hopes of a Gold and Olympic qualification

Field Hockey was included in the Asian Games from the 1958 edition held in Tokyo, Japan. The women's event first made its appearance in the 1982 New Delhi Games.

South Korea leads the overall medals table with 9 Golds, 4 Silvers, and 2 Bronze. Pakistan occupies the second place with 8 Golds, 3 Silvers, and 3 Bronze. India comes third with 4 Golds, 11 Silvers, and 6 Bronze.

Japan won their first Gold medal in the Hockey event at the Asian Games.

Indian supporters would have been hard done with a Bronze medal. But they would have been devastated in the manner in which the team played their semifinals and the Bronze medal game. India was never the same side which played the group match against a South Korean opposition.

They were lethargic, extremely defensive, undisciplined, holding on to the ball for a longer period, guilty of losing balls inside their 25 yards, poor passing, took bad decisions inside the striking circle, over-reliant on the long scoops, unable to get the penalty corners, and Indian midfielders were nowhere to be found. I almost felt that we were back to square one and surely Harendra Singh would have felt the same at some point during the knockout stages.

You need to see why the Australian and the Dutch teams excel in this sport. They would never say enough to goal scoring opportunities. Even if they are 5-0 against a quality opponent they would start attacking and would look to score, since in this modern period you can score one goal in a minute. I hope Indians start playing in this fashion and if they did, they would really be a force to reckon with.

Men's Hockey: Gold Medal Match

In a fitting finale, Japan and Malaysia pumped in 12 goals and yet the match was undecided and went to the penalty shootout where Japan prevailed. Malaysia opened the scoring with a penalty corner conversion from Razie.

Japan equalized in the 9th minute but Tengku pumped in two goals in 2 mins as Malaysia lead 3-1 by the end of the first period. Faizal Saari scored a penalty corner while Japan pulled one back with the score being 4-2 after the second period. Arshad made it 5-2 in the final quarter and with 11 minutes to go Malaysia had their sights on Gold. Japan pumped in 3 goals in 6 minutes to level it at 5-5. Tengku converted a penalty corner only for Japan to equalize through a penalty corner in the final minute of the game.

In the penalty shootout, Koji Yamasaki, Kenta Tanaka, Murata Kazuma scored for Japan. Muhammad Firhan Ashari scored for Malaysia. Japan's Seren Tanaka missed his shot while Hiromasa Ochiai's effort was saved by the goalkeeper. Malaysia's Faizal Saari hit the post, Muhamad Hasan missed his chance and Tengku's effort was saved by the goalkeeper.

Results: Japan (14) defeated Malaysia (12) 6-6 (3-1 on penalties). (JPN - Seren Tanaka 9', Kenta Tanaka 23', 53', Kentara Fukuda 52', Koji Yamasaki 58', Hiromasa Ochiai 60'; MAS - Muhammad Razie Rahim 4', Tengku Tajuddin 11', 12', 59', Faizal Saari 17', Muhammad Arshad 50').

Men's Hockey: Bronze Medal Match

Akashdeep Singh scored for India in their win against Pakistan

India just managed to have 8 shots on target and had only 2 penalty corners in the entire match. Even Pakistan managed to get 4 penalty corners. This statistic would be enough to see the way India played with a defensive mindset. India scored first through Akashdeep in the 3rd minute of the first period after which they needed to wait till the 50th minute to make it 2-0.

Pakistan pulled one back in the 52nd minute, but India held on for a Bronze. Pakistan goalkeeper Imran Butt did manage to pull off some stunning saves to keep the Indian forwards at bay.

Results: India (5) defeated Pakistan (13) 2-1. (IND - Akashdeep Singh 3', Harmanpreet Singh 50'; PAK - Muhammad Atiq 52').

Results involving India

Faizal Saari was electric for Malaysia in their game against India

Semi Finals

India played a defensive game as they had only 2 shots on goal in the entire duration of the match. They converted 2 of their 7 penalty corners to go into the lead. India was extremely undisciplined as they had Sardar Singh followed by Surendra Kumar sitting in the sin bin with yellow card violations. India fell into the age-old problem of conceding a goal in the last two minutes of the game when Harmanpreet was stuck in the foot by the Malaysian forward and Malaysia equalized to take the game to a shoot-out.

In an extended penalty shoot-out, Muhammad Firhan scored twice, Mohd Fitri Saari scored twice, Meor Muhamad Azuan, Faizal Saari, Tengku scored for Malaysia. Akashdeep Singh scored twice, Harmanpreet scored twice, Manpreet Singh, Dilpreet Singh scored for India. Dilpreet's attempt was referred for infringement' but was refused by the video umpire.

Tengku, Meor Muhamad Azuan and Tajuddin Ahmad missed their penalty, while Faizal Saari's attempt was saved by Sreejesh. Manpreet Singh was pulled up for infringement on the goalkeeper and the video referral was upheld, Dilpreet Singh's attempt was saved by Kumar, while Sunil flunked both his attempt's as Kumar saved one and the other was stuck wide.

Malaysia (12) defeated India (5) 2-2 (7-6 on penalties). (MAS - Faizal Saari 39', Muhammad Razie Rahim 59', IND - Harmanpreet Singh 33', Varun Kumar 40').

Japan (16) defeated Pakistan (13) 1-0. (JPN - Shoto Yamada 18').

Preliminary Round

Mandeep Singh scored a hat-trick against Indonesia

India converted 10 of their 28 shots they attempted through field goals. They converted 6 of their 11 penalty corner attempts. Indonesia just had one attempt on goal during the entire match. India leads 5-0 in the first period and scored 4 more in the second. In the third period they scored 5 more and then in the final quarter, they pumped 3 more goals. Dilpreet, Mandeep and Simranjeet scored hat-tricks.

India (5) defeated Indonesia 17-0. (IND - Dilpreet Singh 7', 30', 32', Mandeep Singh 30', 45', 49', Simranjeet Singh 13', 38', 53', Rupinder Pal Singh 1', 3', Akashdeep Singh 10', SV Sunil 25', Vivek Sagar Prasad 27', Harmanpreet 31', Lalit Kumar 45', Amit Rohidas 54').

Rupinder Pal Singh scored 4 goals against Hong Kong

India pummeled Hong Kong by recording their biggest ever victory. Rupinder Pal, Lalit Kumar, and Harmanpreet scored 4 goals each while Akashdeep scored a hat-trick. Hong Kong never got past their 25-yard line for most periods of the match. India converted 17 of their 39 attempts on goals.

India (5) defeated Hong Kong (45) 26-0. (IND - Rupinder Pal Singh 3', 5', 45', 60', Lalit Kumar 17', 19', 35', 55', Harmanpreet 29', 52', 53', 55', Akashdeep Singh 2', 32', 39', Manpreet Singh 3', 17', Varun Kumar 23', 30', SV Sunil 7', Vivek Sagar Prasad 14', Mandeep Singh 21', Amit Rohidas 27', Dilpreet Singh 48', Chinglensana Singh 51', Simranjeet Singh 53').

SV Sunil scored the first goal in the 7th minute against Japan

India had a comfortable victory over Japan as they pumped in 6 field goals in their 16 attempts on target. Rupinder and Mandeep scored a brace, but India needs to work on their penalty corner conversion as they converted just one of 6 attempts.

India (5) defeated Japan (16) 8-0. (IND - Rupinder Pal Singh 17', 38', Mandeep Singh 32', 57', SV Sunil 7', Dilpreet Singh 12', Akashdeep Singh 46', Vivek Sagar Prasad 47').

Lalit Kumar's goal from the long pass against Korea is one of the best goals of the tournament

India turned up with an aggressive brand of Hockey as they caught the Koreans by surprise as they scored 2 goals in the first 5 minutes. Lalit Kumar's goal through a long ball was the highlight of the tournament. A worrying fact for India would be their inability to convert any goals from the 5 penalty corners that they received.

India (5) defeated South Korea (14) 5-3. (IND - Rupinder Pal Singh 1', Chinglensana Singh 5', Lalit Kumar 16', Manpreet Singh 49', Akashdeep Singh 56'; KOR - Jung Man-Jae 33', 35', Jang Jong-Hyun 60').

Akashdeep Singh scored 6 goals against the Lankans

India had a 43% goal conversion rate as they converted 20 of their 46 attempts on target. Akashdeep scored 6 goals, with Rupinder, Harmanpreet, and Mandeep getting hat-tricks.

India (5) defeated Sri Lanka (38) 20-0. (IND - Akashdeep Singh 10', 11', 18', 23', 33', 43', Rupinder Pal Singh 2', 52', 53', Harmanpreet 6', 22', 33', Mandeep Singh 36', 44', 59', Lalit Kumar 58', 59', Vivek Sagar Prasad 32', Amit Rohidas 38', Dilpreet Singh 53').

Important results

Indonesia defeated Hong Kong (45) 3-2. (INA - Alfandy Prastyo 13', Richard Aunalal 39', Ardam 41'; HKG - Siu Chin Ming 26', Gabriel Tsoi 60').

Japan (16) defeated South Korea (14) 3-2. (JPN - Kazuma Murata 28', 46', 49'; KOR - Kim Jung Hoo 39', Jang Jong-Hyun 48').

Pakistan (13) defeated Malaysia (12) 4-1. (PAK - Mohammad Irfan 6', Ajaz Ahamad 38' 48', Mubashar ali 43'; MAS - Faiz Helmi Jali 11').

Jang Jong-Hyun of Korea finished as the top-scorer with 15 goals.

Jang Jong-Hyun of Korea finished as the top-scorer of the tournament with 15 goals.

Final Standings

1 - Japan, 2 - Malaysia, 3 - India, 4 - Pakistan, 5 - South Korea, 6 - Bangladesh, 7 - Oman, 8 - Sri Lanka, 9 - Thailand, 10 - Indonesia, 11 - Kazakhstan, 12 - Hong Kong.