Indian women ready for Korean challenge

Donghae City (Korea), May 18: After three resounding victories, India will be hoping to maintain their unbeaten run as they take on hosts South Korea in their last round-robin Match at the fifth Women's Asian Champions Trophy on Saturday (May 19).

The team led by defender Sunita Lakra beat Japan 4-1 in the opening encounter before defeating China 3-1 and Malaysia 3-2 respectively which helped top the standings.

After achieving a hat-trick of wins at the Women's Asian Champions Trophy 2018, the Indian Eves are perched on top of the standings of this international competition. Here's how the teams are placed as on 17th May.#IndiaKaGame pic.twitter.com/KTietekF07

— Hockey India (@TheHockeyIndia) May 17, 2018

While playing the world No.9 side in their home ground will be a challenging task for Indian, it will serve as an ideal preparation for the final on Sunday (May 20) where they will play against the same opponent.

The hosts are also in good form, having defeated Malaysia and China by an identical 3-1 margin while being held 1-1 by Japan.

"Korea is a good team, but our girls have played this tournament with a lot of confidence. We aren't so bothered about this being their home ground but want to just focus on ourselves and carry forward the good momentum," said chief coach Sjoerd Marijne.

Chief Coach of the Indian Women’s Hockey Team, Sjoerd Marijne, believes the Indian Eves are on the right path with their attacking approach and wants them to play with purpose right from the start. #IndiaKaGame pic.twitter.com/F99a4ZfNtC

— Hockey India (@TheHockeyIndia) May 18, 2018

The team has played this tournament with lot of aggression and impressive with their attack. But playing a highly defensive team like Korea, India needs to ensure they do not make errors.

"The Koreans like to play high pressure. It'll 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'll need to move the ball fast to create space," added Marijne 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, they dropped their level against Malaysia and did not convert the chances they made is a matter of concern.

Marijne said, "It isn't 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 Sunday, 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 Ffinal. We've to be smart in the way we play and ensure we don't exhaust ourselves too much," the Dutchman added.

Match is at 11.30 am IST

Live streaming on youtube.

(With Hockey India inputs)