South Korea won the title of Asian Men’s Hockey Champions Trophy Hockey for the first time beating Japan by 4-2 goals in exciting penalty shootout in the final held today at Maulana Bhasani National Hockey Stadium.
The final was very interesting where South Korea ended the first quarter with a lead 1-0 then Japan with 1-2 at the end of the second quarter.
In the third quarter, Japan adopted a defensive strategy and did not allow Korea to score any goal and adding one more goal they increased their lead to 1-3.
South Korea however bounced back in the fourth quarter playing aggressively and leveled the margin 3-3 scoring two more goals after the end of stipulated time.
During the regulation time, Jang Jonghyun scored a brace in the 55th and 60th minutes after Jeong Junwoo opened an account scoring the first goal for Korea in the very 8th minute while Ken Nagayoshi, Ryoma Ooka, and Yoshika Kirishita scored one goal apiece for Japan in the 24th, 29th and 38th minutes respectively.
The exciting final match rolled into a tie breaker after the regulation time ended 3-3 draw with South Korea held their nerve cool by winning the final of the Asian Hockey Champions Trophy for the first time.
In the penalty shootout, Lee Jungjun, Ji Woo Cheon, Hwang Taeil and Lee Hyeseung converted the spot kick for Korea. For Japan Ryoma Ooka and Seren Tanaka scored goal while Raiki Fujishima and Kosei Kawabe missed the target.
In this event, the Indian finished third position while Pakistan and Bangladesh placed fourth and fifth position respectively in the tournament.
Information Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud was the chief guest in the final and handed over the trophy.
Earlier, in the day’s first match, India beat Pakistan by 4-3 goals to finish third in the keenly contested place-deciding play-off match held at the same venue.
On way to the final, Jang Jonghyun scored a brilliant hat-trick saw South Korea reached final when they came from behind beat Pakistan by 6-5 goals in the first semifinal while Japan beat India by 5-3 goals in the second semis held on Tuesday last.
