Asia Cup 2022 | Confident India eye revenge against Japan in Super 4 match

The nimble-footed Japanese rely mostly on counter-attacks to surprise their opponents, a ploy they used to perfection against India in their last outing

Having risen like a proverbial phoenix from the ashes, a rejuvenated Indian men’s hockey team would like to put up a much-improved performance when it takes on Japan in its first ‘Super 4’ match of the Asia Cup in Jakarta on Saturday.

Despite facing a below-par Indonesia in its final group league game, the young side coached by Sardar Singh must be lauded for being able to score a whopping 16 goals in just an hour.

It was one more than what India required to put a final nail in Pakistan’s coffin as far as harbouring World Cup qualification hopes were concerned.

Both India and Pakistan finished on four points each in Pool A behind Japan but the defending champions qualified for the next round due to better goal difference (+1).

But it was not a smooth sailing for India in the first two matches.

Having already qualified for next year’s World Cup by virtue of being the hosts, India fielded an inexperienced team with as many as 12 debutants for the tournament to gain much-needed experience.

The young boys did not have the best of starts drawing 1-1 with Pakistan before losing 2-5 to Japan, which pushed them on the brink of elimination.