New Delhi: Needing a win to reach the quarter-finals in the last game of the pool phase on Tuesday, India squandered a 3-1 lead to concede late goals that earned Korea a 3-3 draw, which enabled them to progress to the knockout stage of the Junior Men's Hockey World Cup on better goal difference.
The draw ousted India from the tournament with a goal difference (GD) of zero, while Korea's GD stood at +2 after both teams had one win, one loss and one draw from their respective three games in Pool C.
The hero for Korea turned out to be penalty-corner (PC) specialist Seungju You who first converted a short corner in the 16th minute and then pumped in two more in the 58th and 60th minute to complete his hat-trick and negate the 3-1 lead India enjoyed until 15 minutes from full time.
Gurjinder Singh was the star for India, converting two penalty corners in the 32nd and the 35th minute to give India a 2-1 lead at half-time. Mandeep Singh then increased India's lead with a superb field goal (45th minute) to provide the cushion. However, two soft PCs conceded in the last 15 minutes erased India's advantage to put them out of the tournament.
India's attacking intent was on show from the start itself, when they earned a PC in the second minute but Amit Rohidas failed to convert it. Koreans weren't short of confidence either and were only denied by the crossbar when You's flick off a PC hit the woodwork.
It remained a hit-and-miss story until the 16th minute when You opened the scoring in the 16th minute off a short corner that beat Sushat Tirkey, who replaced Harjot Singh in the goal for the crucial tie.
India upped the ante during the last five minutes of the first half. The pressure period resulted in two PCs, which Gurjinder converted swiftly to surprise the Koreans with a 2-1 lead at the hooter.
India didn't take their foot off the accelerator in the second half, which resulted in a crafty one-two between Mandeep and Ramandeep Singh, with the latter's diving deflection putting the ball in. However, that was the only bright spot in Ramandeep's othewise shoddy display on Tuesday.
Ramandeep - most expensive player of this year's Hockey India League Closed Bid - was found making elementary mistakes of mis-trapping and wasting promising moves with repeated faulty passes. That cost India many chances to score. In fact, the coordination between Akashdeep Singh, Mandeep and Ramandeep promised more than it delivered, with the last touch letting them down on a number of occasions.
India lost the momentum after captain Manpreet Singh - who too had a off day - was shown the green card in the 57th minute. Korea earned two PCs during his absence to bring the scores level.
India made valiant effort to score the winner in the last 10 minutes, but the Koreans managed to hold on and were seen celebrating their qualification in the quarter-finals at the final hooter.
Netherlands is the other team to progress from Pool C after they topped the pool with three back-to-back wins, including a 7-0 runaway win over Egypt on Tuesday.
India finished third in Pool C and will now play the third-placed team from Pool B, Argentina, for the 9th to 12th position. The match will be played on December 12 at 1900 IST after a rest day in the tournament on Wednesday.
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