The Indian hockey team lifted the Women’s Junior Asia Cup 2023 cup after registering a 2-1 win over the Republic of Korea in the finals. The hockey tournament was being held in Kakamigahara, Japan.
This was India’s maiden win in the Women's Junior Asia Cup. The Indian team had already secured a spot in the FIH Women's Junior World Cup 2023 in Chile. Host team Japan won over China 2-1 to become the third team to qualify for the World Cup.
The final match saw India’s Annu (21') and Neelam (40’) score Korea’s only goal was scored by Seoyeon Park (24’).
India began the game with an attack and won a penalty corner in the very first minute of the game, however, they failed to covert that into a goal. Korea then began counter-attacks and controlled the ball possession. Despite the first half seeing attacking hockey, no goals were scored.
Korea pushed India on the back foot in the second quarter but India scored a goal in a penalty stroke. Soon, Korea’s Seoyeon Park scored an equalizing field goal for Korea.
In the second half of the match Korea maintained ball possession while the Indian team switched to counter-attacks. The strategy paid off as Neelam converted a penalty corner, scoring the second goals for India and putting the team in the lead.
India then focused on defending and controlled the tempo of the game by keeping possession in the fourth quarter. In a bid to score with time running out, Korea made forced errors and misdirected passes. The game came to a close with India winning 2-1.
