India women's hockey team coach Janneke Schopman said that the players did well to keep the pressure on Malaysia through the 60 minutes play in their 9-0 win on opening day at the Women's Asia Cup in Muscat, Oman.
The team rode on goals scored by Vandana Katariya (8', 34'), Deep Grace Ekka (10'), Navneet Kaur (15', 27'), Lalremsiami (38'), Monika (40'), Sharmila (46', 59'). The defending champions led by Savita made an attacking start in the first quarter with fast-paced set-play.
Talking about the match, Schopman said, "We were excited to finally play a game but were a bit restless at the start, trying to find our pace. But after five minutes I think we started to play our own game with a lot of movement and good pressure which resulted in good attacking opportunities and goals."
India will take on Asian Games defending Champions Japan in their second Pool A match. Japan beat Singapore 6-0 in their first match on Friday.
The two teams had earlier met in 2019 during the Ready Steady Tokyo Hockey in 2019, a Test event ahead of the Olympic Games 2020. India had defeated Japan 2-1 in the round-robin league stage as well as the final.
Speaking about the opponents, Schopman said, "It should be a good game. Japan has also brought an experienced team so we are looking forward to playing them. It will be interesting to see if we can execute our gameplay using our strengths."
( With inputs from ANI )
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