India’s Mandeep Singh, left, who scored the opener against Japan being greeted by Sukhjeet Singh and Abhishek, right, on the third day of the Hero Asia Cup Hockey in Rajgir on Sunday, August 31, 2025.
| Photo Credit: R.V. MOORTHY
Another narrow win against a lower-ranked side that stuck to defending well and deep and attacking on counters put India into the Super 4s at the Asia Cup hockey here on Sunday and Coach Fulton, while happy with the team’s victory, admitted they could have done more on the turf.
“It was a really good first half, we did a high press really well. We could have scored 2-3 more goals because the stats are really high for us, but then you make 1-2 mistakes late on and that’s not good from us. But that happened, we were 3-1 up, then it was 3-2. Getting a card in the end is always frustrating for everyone, but it’s part of the game,” Fulton summed up the day.
He admitted that the second half was tougher because “quarter three is more of a battle, the opposition is down, and they have to do something… then in the fourth quarter I thought we could have put 1-2 more away, but that didn’t happen. But it’s coming,” he insisted.
Asked about the drop in intensity in the latter half of the game, Fulton mentioned the weather. “The high pressing in the heat in the beginning also takes its toll and the Japanese boys ran hard as well, so we had to deal with their hard press also. We expect a good performance in the final quarter, hopefully it will come.”
Monday onwards there will be no morning games with India playing all its remaining matches under lights at 7.30 p.m. and Fulton admitted it would make a huge difference.
“These matches at 1 and 3 in the afternoon are super difficult. You don’t normally play in 35 degrees with such high humidity, unless you come from Malaysia or other such places where it’s hot all the time. But it’s a good challenge, and we have done it, now we have to prepare for tomorrow,” he signed off.
Published – August 31, 2025 07:57 pm IST
