India defeated Malaysia 5-0 on Saturday to make it two wins in two matches. Vandana Katariya (7′, 21′), Sangita Kumari (28′), Lalremsiami (28′), and Jyoti (38′).
Perhaps the best goal of the night but definitely the most significant goal of the night was scored by Sangita to put India 3-0 up. Picking up the ball from the right byline, Salima Tete showed the speed that once saw former coach Sjoerd Marijne describe her as a ‘Ferrari’ during commentary. The thing about a Ferrari is that not only it can be speedy, but the handling is pretty nifty too. Salima moved at pace with the ball stuck to her stick, dropping the shoulder and beating a couple of defenders then passing the ball through a crowd.
At the receiving end inside the circle was Sangita Kumari, who received the ball and turned instantly goalward, leaving a couple of defenders behind too and made space to get the shot away. And when the ball hit the back of the net, the Simdega faithful were in unison with the rest of the crowd as loud cheers went up.
“We have a lot of good combinations in our team, but Sangita aur mera ek alag connection hai. What I’ll do she knows, and she clears space for me when I am dribbling. The two of us always combine very well. And to see our junior girls from Simdega here for this moment was very special,” Salima Tete said after the match.
That goal also was a vindication for coach Janneke Schopman to show what this team is capable of. “The moment we start moving the ball well, then you see there are extremely good individual skills that come into play. An amazing goal,” the former Dutch star said.
Impressive on the night was also Vandana, closing in on 300 international caps, who got on the scoresheet twice.
The opening goal, much like on Friday, came from a Penalty Corner that didn’t go to plan. The trapping has not been easy on the newly-laid astro turf for most teams and it has made scoring drag flicks or direct hits difficult. But what India did well this time was to recycle the ball well and it set Vandana up for a smart finish to put her side up.
India thought they had received a penalty stroke a few minutes later after a rare spell of Malaysian attack resulted in them getting exposed on the counter. Navneet Kaur, once again involved in most of India’s good attacking play, released Deepika who was awarded a stroke but that was later rescinded.
The opening quarter also saw India miss a couple of other PCs which went to Deep Grace Ekka for drag flicks. While they didn’t result in goals, they were the best-executed routines till then. But India perhaps realised that the direct efforts weren’t quite working and brought a brilliant variation to score their second.
The injection saw Sonika trap the ball well and it was Navneet who was shaping to take the hit, and just then, Sonika pushed the ball between the latter’s legs for a dummy. The pass went to Udita Duhan who then took a shot at goal for Vandana to finish from close range.
Lalremsiami got on the scoresheet just after Sangita’s goal as India went into the half time 4-0 up. The second half made Schopman a little bit frustrated as the goals didn’t come but overall there was good control on display. The solitary goal of the last 30 minutes came from Jyoti with Vandana turning provider this time with a smart assist.
After a rest day, India face China in a match where they would be hoping to give a better account of themselves than they did in Hangzhou in the semifinal. Earlier in the day, China bounced back from their defeat on Friday to defeat Thailand 6-0. In the first match of the day, defending champions Japan continued to impress with a 4-0 win against Korea.
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