INDIA halted the Netherlands juggernaut with a great comeback in the second half to triumph 4-3 and storm into the semifinals of the Men’s Hockey Junior World Cup at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil this afternoon.
India’s captain, Uttam Singh punched a hole into Netherlands’ hopes by slamming the winning goal in the 57th minute from open play that sunk the Dutch into the abyss and lifted India into the last four stage of the JWC.
“I carried on my father’s legacy as a hockey player. He wanted me to play the game when I was a little boy and represent the country one day. I fulfilled my father’s wishes today by scoring the winning goal,” said Uttam, adding that his father was forced to stop playing the game at the age of 17 after his grandfather passed away.
ùThe Indians will now play Germany in the semi-finals on Thursday.
Forwards Timo Boers and Pepijn van der Heijden had earlier raised Dutch hopes with penalty corner conversion goals in the fifth and 16th minutes.
But India, who won the 2021 edition of the JWC in Lucknow and finished fourth at the 2021 event in Bhubaneswar, rolled back from a nervy first half that saw C.K. Kumar’s side struggle to keep pace with the Dutch, who held ball possession.
Midfielder Lalage Aditya Arjun drove a powerful shot past goalkeeper Daan Taphoorn in the 34th minute as India narrowed the deficit to 2-1. But they were far from over. Araijet Singh Hundal converted a penalty stroke in the 35th minute to level the score 2-2.
The Netherlands, however, showed their prowess through Oliver Hortensius via a penalty corner conversion in the 44th minute to go 3-2 ahead, but Anand Saurabh Kushwaha came to India’s rescue to draw level 3-3 with a 52nd-minute open-play goal.
But it was Uttam who buried the Dutch by netting the winning goal three minutes before the final hooter. Uttam deflected the ball into the goal from a Boby Dhami Singh cross.
The Dutch went on the offensive in search of the equaliser and failed to score from seven penalty corner opportunities in the last five minutes of the game.
C.K. Kumar, India’s coach, said: “The match was exciting. We came back after being two goals down. Everyone would have thought it’s over for India. The boys very much deserve to be in the semifinals. They played their hearts out and gave their best. Whatever possible chances they had, they had converted.
I must credit my players for doing a great job. They defended the penalty corners, and I think we deserve this win. The Dutch played the first two quarters very strongly and scored. This was their plan in a few games that we saw. We know pretty well. After conceding two goals, the players came back very strongly. ”
Jesse Mahieu, Netherlands coach, said: “I think in the first half, we should be leading by three goals. We had the chance to score more goals. The problem is that India has good players who are capable of putting pressure even when they are down and they did just that in the second half.
“Under the circumstances, our players got tired at certain stages. Being able to recognize these moments in the game that really makes a difference. I think we played beautiful hockey and created many chances. Asian teams have improved a lot, you can see that in India, Pakistan and South Korea as well.”