FIH Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup 2023: Confident India Eye Winning Start Against Asian Rivals South Korea – News18

The Indian junior males’s hockey workforce will look to kick off their FIH Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup Malaysia 2023 marketing campaign with a victory once they tackle their Asian counterparts, Korea, within the first match in Pool C on the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil on Tuesday.

The Indian workforce goes into this sport with a number of confidence as they’ve a greater head-to-head report towards Korea. Out of the six matches performed between the 2 groups, India gained three, Korea gained two, and one match led to a draw.

The final time each groups confronted one another was throughout the semi-ultimate of the Men’s Junior Asia Cup held earlier this 12 months the place India registered a large 9-1 win over Korea.

Speaking forward of the opening sport, the skipper Uttam Singh stated: “The wait is finally over for the World Cup, and we are very much confident of a good start. We recently played against Korea, so we are aware of the challenge, but the focus will be on us, on executing our plans, and playing good hockey.”

Meanwhile, Coach C R Kumar stated: “The players have worked hard, and are fully prepared for the tournament. Korea are a quality side, you can’t take them lightly. We have to respect every opponent, it is a bigger stage, so we will have to be cautious and back our strengths to get a good start in the tournament.”

The two-time Junior World Champions India will then face Spain on the December 7 and Canada on the December 9, respectively of their Pool C matches. A high-two end within the Pool stage will guarantee a spot within the quarterfinals.

Uttam, who was a part of the Indian Team’s fourth-place end on the Junior World Cup in 2021, said that they are going to go match-by-match within the event. “As always, our focus has been to go match-by-match, and our priority is to get a winning start and then focus on the following matches to proceed to the next stage of the tournament,” he stated.

The quarterfinals, semi-finals, and ultimate of the event will happen on December 12, 14 and 16 respectively.

(This story has not been edited by News18 workers and is revealed from a syndicated information company feed – IANS)