| India finish on a high
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September 6, 2007
India 16 Thailand 0
It was another high-scoring match for India as they smashed the resistance of Thailand scoring 16 goals at will. India finish with a maximum of 15 points and now face Japan in the semi-finals on Saturday.
Raghunath scored six goals, the first five coming off consecutive penalty corners. Prabhjot and Rajpal scored three goals each. At the break, India led 10-0 and going by the six goals that came in the second session, it was apparent that the Thai’s were a better organized defensive unit.
Indian coach Joaquim Carvalho said that he was happy with the performance and now his sights were set on winning the semi-final. “Japan is not to be taken lightly,” said Carvalho. “We played them in the Challenger but the Asia Cup is a different tournament.”
The win was a foregone conclusion and the importance of the match was to ensure that the boys once again score and get their tails up before the semi-finals. It was also important that Raghunath who hasn’t been in the best of form score a few and get his confidence back. Raghunath’s six goals in the match put the smile back on Carvalho’s face and also ensured that in the match, Raghunath would also give some competition to Yamabori, Japan’s penalty corner converting captain.
The challenge actually begins on Saturday in the semi-finals but the Indians who have beaten the Asian Games gold medalist South Korea and silver medalist China in the Pool matches should not be short on confidence.
India would be having a training session on Friday in their tune-up to the semi-finals.
Score Sheet:
Raghunath (2nd, PC) 1-0
Raghunath (7th, PC) 2-0
Raghunath (13th, PC) 3-0
Raghunath (18th, PC) 4-0
Raghunath (26th, PC) 5-0
Prabhjot Singh (27th, FG) 6-0
Tushar Khandeker (28th, FG) 7-0
Prabhjot Singh (29th, FG) 8-0
Tushar Khandeker (34th, FG) 9-0
SV Sunil (35th, FG) 10-0
Gurbaj Singh (38th, FG) 11-0
Rajpal Singh (54th, FG) 12-0
Raghunath (56th, PC) 13-0
Rajpal Singh (57th, FG) 14-0
Rajpal Singh (59th, FG) 15-0
Prabhjot Singh (62nd, FG) 16-0
| Schedule |
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Final Standings :
1. India
2. S Korea
3. Malaysia
4. Japan
5. China
6. Pakistan
7. Bangladesh
8. Hong Kong
9. Sri Lanka
10. Singapore
11. Thailand
Sunday's Matches  |
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| TEAM A | TEAM B | Playoff | TIME | RESULT | |||
| S Lanka | SPore | 9/10 | 08:00 | 6-0 | |||
| Ban | HKG | 7/8 | 07:00 | 3-1 | |||
| China | Pak | 5/6 | 09:30 | 3-2 | |||
| Malaysia | Japan | 3/4 | 16:00 | 5-3 | |||
| India | S Korea | 1/2 | 18:30 | 7-2 | |||
|
Saturday's Matches |
|||||||
| TEAM A | v | TEAM B | TIME | RESULT | |||
| Singapore | v | Thailand | 08:00 | 4-0 | |||
| Pak | v | Ban | 07:00 | 10-0 | |||
| China | v | HongKong | 09:30 | 6-1 | |||
| S Korea | v | Malaysia | 17:00 | 2-1 | |||
| India | v | Japan | 19:30 | 4-1 | |||
|
SCORE TABLE |
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| POOL A | |||||||
| TEAM | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | PTS |
| Malaysia SF | 4 | 3 | 1 | 26 | 4 | 10 | |
| Japan SF | 4 | 3 | 1 | 18 | 4 | 9 | |
| Pakistan | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 7 | 7 |
| Hong Kong | 4 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 28 | 3 | |
| Singapore | 4 | 4 | 2 | 27 | 0 | ||
| POOL B | |||||||
| TEAM | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | PTS |
| India SF | 5 | 5 | 46 | 2 | 15 | ||
| S Korea SF | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 41 | 8 | 10 |
| China | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 32 | 6 | 10 |
| Bangladesh | 5 | 2 | 3 | 16 | 22 | 6 | |
| Sri Lanka | 5 | 1 | 4 | 15 | 46 | 3 | |
| Thailand | 5 | 5 | 1 | 67 | 0 | ||
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 A team should be ready to play anyone. Of course, more |
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