Pakistan loses bronze to India in Asia Games hockey decider, Japan strike gold

The Indian hockey team on Saturday beat Pakistan 2-1 in the decider for the third position in hockey during Asian Games 2018.

The Indian men’s team continued their hold over the game as they bagged the bronze medal after failing to impress against Malaysia.

During the match, Akashdeep Singh scored a field goal in the third minute and gave his team an early lead which Pakistan had a hard time catching up on. India’s advantage was doubled when Harmanpreet Singh scored another goal off a penalty corner in the 50th minute.

Muhammad Ateeq managed to reduce the margin for Pakistan in the 52nd minute, however, the game was lost by that time.

Pakistan hockey team manager and former Olympian Hassan Sardar said that the on-field umpire and third umpire Javed Shiekh and Raghu Prasad were Indians, who were clearly biased against Pakistan in their decisions.

“All the referrals went against us and the video umpire supported the Japanese,” he said. “We were awarded a penalty stroke in the 44th minute but Japanese appealed against that decision and, to our amazement, the video umpire upheld the Japanese protest,” Hasan regretted.

“We were clearly deprived of a goal. We had protested against the Indian officials before and after the match but they ignored our protests,” he lamented.

Japan staged a spectacular regulation time comeback to draw 6-6 before edging out Malaysia 3-1 in a penalty shootout and claim the men’s hockey gold at the Asian Games on Saturday.

Trailing 4-1 in the second period and then 5-2 in the fourth, Japan pumped in three goals through Kentaro Fukuda, Kenta Tanaka and Koji Yamasaki in a seven-minute blitz to level the pulsating contest.

Tengku Ahmad Tajuddin completed his hat-trick in the 59th minute to put Malaysia ahead again, rekindling their hopes of an Asian gold which secures a place at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. But, Hiromasa Ochiai levelled when he scored from a penalty corner with 13 seconds left to force the shootout won by Japan who already have a place at the Tokyo Games as hosts.