| Kim Sang Ryul - 'India played very well'
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Kim Sang Ryul, former South Korean coach and at the moment the National coach of China, is no stranger to Indian hockey. Few would know Indian hockey better than him. After losing the first match to India 0-1, Kim spoke about the match and the Indian performance.
Q: Do you think the match was closely fought?
Kim Sang: I think India played very well and attacked more. They had more space in the match. They were the better team.
Q: In the first half, your players seemed reluctant to come up and force the pace?
Kim Sang: We are without 6-7 of our main players as they have been rested. Chinese hockey players don’t play regularly in front of many spectators. Maybe, they were nervous seeing so many people (laughs!) But, yes, they didn’t show their abilities on the field and hopefully we will play better in the remaining matches.
Q: You played a defensive game overall, except for some portions in the second half?
Kim Sang: India started off with the attacks. They came to us so we had to wait for the breaks. The format was to play defensive. If we had attacked then, India would have finished us off. We closed the gaps and played a defensive game in our circle. But we still gave away five penalty corners. It was a tactical decision to play defensively and wait to get a chance and score goals.
Q: China has closed the gap between them and the rest of the countries in Asia?
Kim Sang: A few years back, the gaps between us and the rest in Asia were huge. But now we have closed that gap. It’s smaller now. Of course, there is a lot of improvement that is needed. But I am happy that we have started winning. If we lose, we lose by smaller margins like we lost to India 0-1. We would also need to start thinking outside of Asia and look for greater improvement.
Archive : Islah is confident
| 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 | |||
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Saturday's Matches |
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| 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 | |||
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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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