At Sultan Qaboos Youth Complex for Culture and Entertainment where three matches would be played, one for Pool B and two for Pool A. With a sunny and ideal day to play field hockey, teams that already made their first appearance would face teams that would make their debut today, May 24.
KOREA 6 VS UZBEKISTAN 1 (POOL B)
In the first match of day two, Korea, who were making their debut in this tournament, played against Uzbekistan who had lost their first match yesterday against Malaysia.
The match started with an early lead for the Korean team after three minutes of play with a goal by KIM Minkwon from a penalty corner to give the Uzbek team an early lead.
Korea did not stop advancing and scored three more goals between the 18th and 44th minute, scored by LEE Seunghwan, another by KIM Minkwon and another by LEE Sungmin, both from penalty corners. With a 4-0 lead, the yellow team tried to impose their game, but they could not against a team that wanted to go for more. Uzbekistan was able to score their first goal of the match in the 50th minute by KAKHRAMONOV Shavkatjon to make it 4-1.
JANG Young’s team wanted to show in their debut what they came to this tournament for, showing their style of play and their desire to go for more. In the 56th and 60th minutes Korea scored two more goals by PARK Geonwoo and HWANG Keonyeol until the last minute to make it 6-1.
ISMAILOV Enver’s team tried to defend and block the Korean team, but they could not stop them and added another defeat in Pool B.
Korea will play against the local, Oman their next match to try to reach their second win, while Uzbekistan will play their third match against Bangladesh.
The best player of the match was KIM Minkwon who scored two goals and had an outstanding game.
INDIA 18 VS CHINESE TAIPEI 0 (POOL A)
The second match of the day was played between India and Chinese Taipei, the latter had already made its debut yesterday while the Indian team made its debut today May 24.
India along with Pakistan is one of the most winning teams in this tournament having won it 3 times in the past and completing with the 2023 edition their ninth appearance in this championship. Their experience and power in the sport meant that Chinese Taipei could not control a team that came out all guns blazing and after 10 minutes of play had already scored 2 goals.
The Indian team was in control during the whole match, not leaving Chinese Taipei with many options to attack as the Indian team never stopped attacking and being offensive to score as many goals as possible, knowing that this goal difference can be especially important also in the position of the Pool A table.
The blue team tried to defend and block their opponent, but it was difficult with the white machine that did not give them any respite in the 60 minutes of play. India converted eighteen goals which were scored by SINGH Uttam x2, Dhami Boby Singh x2, TIWARI Sharda Nand,Hundal Araijeet Singh x4, Singh Angad Bir, Lalage Aditya Arjun,Amandeep x3,Chandura boby Poovannax2,Ali Amir and Rawat Yogember.
India will face Japan in their next match, while Chinese Taipei will take on Thailand to advance in Pool A.
The best player of the match was Amandeep #10 who scored a hat trick to help his team in this first victory.
PAKISTAN 9 VS THAILAND 0 (POOL A)
Last match of the day for Pool A, between Pakistan and Thailand. Both teams had made their debut yesterday May 23rd, so this would be the second match for both teams to define their positions in Pool A.
Pakistan with their impressive performance in their Junior players had the advantage over Thailand who had just lost against Japan in the opening match, while OLTMANS Roelant’s team had scored 15 goals in their debut.
Pakistan started noticeably confident after yesterday’s victory and that is why after 15 minutes of play SHAHID Abdul scored the first goal which would end up being 9 goals scored by Abdul REHMAN x5, WAHAB Abdul, AHMAD Arbaz and MURTAZA Muhammad. The most goals for OLTMANS Roelant’s side came in the last two quarters of the game where they gave no respite and took advantage of every scoring chance they had.
Thailand, on the other hand, tried to close the white team’s spaces so that they could not open spaces and thus avoid more balls inside the circle, but this was not an easy task.
Although KIM Jung Chul’s team had their chances, they were not so many, and the excellent Pakistani defense did not allow any goal inside their goal.
The best player of the match was the scorer of the day Abdul REHMAN who scored 5 goals to put his team on top.
Thailand will go in search of their first win against Chinese Taipei and try to climb up the standings, while Pakistan leads Pool A and wants to secure their place against the mighty India.
