Saturday, May 15, 2010

India vs South Korea Final of Sultan Azlan Shah Cup 2010

India takes on South Korea in the final of Sultan Azlan Shah Cup 2010 hockey tournament which is currently going on in Malaysia. For both sides, this will be the sixth appearance in the tournament final. India won the title on 4 occasions, while South Korea could win it only once.

The match kicks off at 20:35 local time (12:35 GMT). According to Indian time, the match begins at 18:05. In South Korea the match starts at 21:35.

Indian hockey team is the defending champion of the tournament and their appearance in this year’s final will be third time in 3 years. Record shows India’s performance in Sultan Azlan Shah Cup has been excellent over the last few years.

South Korea’s performance was not any great in the recent past as they played in the tournament final last time in 2005. Their only success in the tournament came in 1999 when they defeated Australia in the tournament final.

India reached the final winning 4 out of their 6 matches, but their recent form in world hockey is not very good. India failed to impress in this year’s world cup hockey at home. They even could not reach the semi final.

South Korea’s performance was equally frustrating in the world cup. So, it seems Korean players will be determined to compensate their fans winning the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup 2010 title. Indian players will also be looking to do the same in an attempt to give some opportunity to their fans to cheer on.

Though their 5-2 defeat to Malaysia in the preliminary stage came as a big shock, India has a plenty of other reasons to be full of confident ahead of the final match. India already defeated world champion Australia, Pakistan and South Korea in the tournament.

India have a number of in-form players including Tushar Khandekar, who is currently India’s leading scorer in the tournament with 5 goals, and Dhananjay Mahadik who bagged a hat-trick against Egypt in their last game.

South Korea also has some positives from the tournament. Korea’s 3 wins so far in the tournament came against 3 bottom-placed teams- Pakistan, China and Egypt. That means, they could not win any match against the top 4 teams. However, it does not mean that they will have lack of confidence against India.

Korea clinched a superb come-from-back victory against Pakistan to ensure their place in the final, while they held Australia to a 2-2 draw. Korea’s Nam Hyun Woo is currently the leading scorer in the tournament with 9 goals to his credit.

Here are the squads of India and South Korea:

India Squad

Rajpal Singh (captain), Amit Prabhakar, Rupinder Pal Singh, Arjun Halappa, Prabohd Tirkey, Dhananjay Mahdik, Sardar Singh, Mandip Antil, Ravi Pal, Sarvanjit Singh, Bharat Chetri (GK), Gurbaj Singh, Tushar Khandker, Sreejesh Parattu Raveendran (GK), Vikas Vishnu Pillay, Shivendra Singh, Danish Mujtaba, Bharat.

South Korea Squad

Lee Myung Ho (GK), Lee Seung Il, Ro Jong Hwan, Nam Hyun Woo, Lee Nam Yong, Cho Suk Hoon, Jung Hwan Uk, Yoon Sung Hoon, You Hyo Sik, Yang Soo Hyuk, Jin Kyung Min, Oh Dae Keun, Shin Yong Ho, Hong Eun Seong, Yoo Min Ho, Kim Young Jin, Kim Yong Bae, Lee Seung Hoon

9 comments:

  1. can anybody tell me on which channel it will shown live?

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  2. india should win at any cost, this will not only boost india's sagging hockey fortunes but also help the team build up which is happening after the world cup debacle

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  3. all the very best india

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  4. all the best to INDIA.....

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  5. somebody pls tell the broadcast channel in india

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  6. Live on Ten Sports watching at1800hrs.

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  7. All the very best to indian team. can any one tell me which channel telecasting this match

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