Led by Mohan Gandhi, a player of Indian origin, the United States has qualified for the semi-finals of the FIH Series Finals after playing a 2-2 draw with the Asian Games champion Japan at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar..Japan will play the cross-overs against the team who will be ranked third in Pool A. The final standings in both Pools will be clear later today after the last two games of the tournament’s Pool phase.
Intriguingly, Japan has already qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games, both as a host as well as the Asian Games champion.
Mohan Gandhi was given the command of the US team after the captain Ajit Dhadwal had to withdraw. Other member of Indian origin in the US team is Paul Singh.
Japan started the game at a higher tempo than their opponents of the day, spending most of the first half in USA’s half of the pitch. The Asian champions had a few opportunities on penalty corners, which were either brilliantly cleared by goalkeeper Jonathan Klages or missed by the Japanese themselves.
They were very close to opening the scoring with a shot from Genki Mitani, which Kazuma Murata was only a step away from deflecting into the goal. Kentaro Fukuda expedited a powerful shot from near the penalty stroke mark but missed the target. USA were focused on defending and they were doing that well.
In the second half, Japan kept pushing to take the lead in this game which would send them straight to the semi-finals. But with a quick counter-attack led by Christian de Angelis and Tyler Sundeen and finished by Deegan Huisman, it’s the American side who scored first. Japan reacted and a few seconds before the end of the third quarter, fast-running Kenta Tanaka, elected Man of the Match, scored a fine solo effort to provide an equaliser for his squad.
The fate of this game – and of both teams’ future in this tournament – was then to be decided in the last quarter. USA were the first to create a good chance with Pat Harris’ shot on goal saved by Takashi Yoshikawa. The goalkeeper did not have the same fortune minutes later when, while he managed to deflect a powerful shot from Sean Cicchi, Deegan Huisman – again - was at the right spot to receive the ball and hit it past the goal-line. Despite Japan’s late equaliser by Suguru Hoshi, this result meant a direct entry in the semi-finals for USA.
USA’s Head Coach Rutger Wiese: “Our objective was to advance to the next round, which we did, but we weren’t planning to qualify directly for the semi-finals. We’re very proud of the guys, they worked extremely hard. This is the team USA we like to see. Japan was fantastic today but our goalkeeper and two full-backs had an outstanding performance.”
Japan’s captain Manabu Yamashita, said “It was a tough game for us. We had a lot of attacking opportunities, but did many mistakes. USA were in the circle a few times and managed to get a good result.”
Result: USA 2, Japan 2 (Pool B)
Man of the Match: Kenta Tanaka (JPN)
