India India defeated Argentina 2-1 on Sunday to finish their Men’s FIH Pro League season. Akashdeep Singh and Sukhjeet Singh both scored a goal in the first period.
The gold medal-winning team from the Rio Olympics, Argentina, was upset by India by a similar score a few days before, and Sunday’s victory brought their total in the nine-team double round-robin event to 30 points after 16 games.
India took the lead in the opening minute thanks to Akashdeep Singh, and India added another field goal in the thirteenth. Argentina scored in the 57th minute on a penalty corner by Lucas Toscani.
India maintained its lead at the top of the standings with 30 points from eight victories by margins of victory, three victories after shootouts, one shootout loss, and five losses. With 26 points from 12 games, Great Britain is in second place, followed by Australia in third with 19 points from 13 matches.
India got off to a good start in the game. India had little issue scoring inside the first two minutes of the game thanks to Akashdeep Singh’s simple put-in from right in front of goal and a poor start by the Argentinian defensive.
With with a minute remaining in the first quarter, the Indians increased their advantage. A sliding Sukhjeet Singh received the ball from Akashdeep and Vivek Sagar Prasad in front of the goal, effortlessly breaching the Argentine defence once again.
Although Argentina played better in the second half, their breakthrough didn’t come until there were two and a half minutes remaining in the game. Lucas Toscani scored the first goal for Los Leones after Nicolas Della Torre sent the ball to him from a penalty corner.
In the last seconds, they put pressure on for an equaliser, but it was too late to stop India from winning 2-1 in their final game of the FIH Hockey Pro League season.
Player of the game was Vivek Sagar Prasad. “It was a perfect fit for us. It’s great for us that we ended strong with a victory in this, our last game in the Pro League. The FIH cited him as stating, “Now we need to concentrate on what was excellent in this tournament and, more significantly, on what we need to improve like PC conversion and more counterattacks.
