September 17, 2024: With two goals from captain Harmanpreet Singh, the defending champions India secured a place in the final of the Men’s Asian Champions Trophy (ACT) hockey tournament by defeating South Korea 4-1. Harmanpreet Singh scored in the 19th and 45th minutes, while Uttam Singh (13th minute) and Germanpreet Singh (32nd minute) added one goal each. South Korea’s lone goal came from Yang Jihoon (33rd minute) via a penalty corner.
In the final on Tuesday, India will face the host team, China. India had previously defeated China 3-0 in the league stage. Earlier in the day’s first semi-final, China won against Pakistan 2-0 in a shootout after the match ended 1-1 in regulation time. The third-place match will see Pakistan and South Korea face off, also on Tuesday.
India started aggressively and maintained pressure on Korea’s defense throughout. On the other hand, Korea focused on defense and adopted a counter-attacking strategy. Abhishek came close to giving India the lead in the fourth minute, but his shot was saved by Korean goalkeeper Kim Jaehan. The Indian team was consistently successful in entering the Korean circle during the first quarter and capitalized on it in the 13th minute when Uttam scored from a pass by Arjit Singh Hundal.
Korea was awarded two consecutive penalty corners at the start of the second quarter but failed to convert them. India received its first penalty corner in the fourth minute of the second quarter, and captain Harmanpreet scored to make it 2-0. India maintained this lead until halftime.
At the start of the third quarter, India extended the lead to 3-0 when Sumit passed to Germanpreet, who scored without error. Yang Jihoon, the top scorer of the tournament, scored a penalty corner to open Korea’s account. With just one second left in the third quarter, India was awarded another penalty corner, which Harmanpreet converted to make the score 4-1. In the fourth and final quarter, Indian goalkeeper Suraj Karkera thwarted two attempts by Park Cheol-yeon. Korea also had a penalty corner but failed to score. With this victory, India secured its place in the final for the sixth time in the tournament.