Asia Cup Hockey 2022: Japan beat India 5-2. This is India’s first defeat in two matches in the current tournament. Earlier, he played the first match against Pakistan in a draw. After the loss to Japan, the Indian team is in danger of being out of the Asia Cup.

Jakarta. India’s youth team suffered the brunt of inexperience with a 2-5 defeat against Japan in the Men’s Asia Cup Hockey Championship on Tuesday. After playing a draw against Pakistan in their opening match, this big defeat will make the journey of the Indian team difficult. Even if the team beats Indonesia in the next match, then it will be difficult for them to get tickets for the knockout stage.

Ken Nagayoshi, Kosei Kawabe (two goals), Ryomi Oka and Koji Yamasaki scored for Japan while Pawan Rajbhar and Uttam Singh scored for the Indian team. Coach Sardar Singh’s young Indian team looked weak in front of the more organized Japanese team. Captain Birendra Lakra and SV Sunil, the two senior players of the team, did not show the level for which they are known.

Lakra said after the match, ‘The first two quarters were very difficult for us as we could not find the momentum in it. In the latter two quarters, we did well but could not create many chances. India had a chance to take the lead in the fifth minute of the first half. 20-year-old Karthi Selvam gave a good pass to the experienced SV Sunil but Sunil was not able to stop the ball properly.

Japan also had a chance to score in this quarter but the team’s penalty corner was thwarted by Indian goalkeeper Suraj Karkera. In the second quarter, midfielder Raj Kumar made a brilliant shot from the corner of the circle towards the goalpost but it was stopped by the goalkeeper of Japan. After that Japan started to hold on to the match and got two penalty corners. Ken Nagayoshi opened Japan’s account by converting the second penalty into a goal.

India had an equal chance after that but Neelam Sanjeep could not convert Jess’s opportunity into a goal by Raj Kumar. His reverse hit was stopped by the goalkeeper. In the 40th minute of the match, Kawabe snatched the ball from the Indian players from the middle of the field and went ahead alone and converted it into a goal.

In the last moments of the third quarter, Lakra created a brilliant opportunity inside Japan’s circle which Rajbhar converted into a goal. In the last quarter, Kato’s pass was converted into a goal by Oka to extend Japan’s lead to 3-1, but in the very next minute, Uttam Singh, with the help of Rajbhar, closed the gap.

In the last seven minutes, two Indian players had to be out of the field and Japan took full advantage of it. Yamasaki’s goal in the 54th minute of the match took Japan’s lead 4-2. Two minutes later, Kawabe’s attempt was thwarted by goalkeeper Suraj, but the player converted his second attempt to give Japan a 5–2 lead.