Perth, Australia, 7 October 2016: India went down 4-3 in a penalty shoot out to the Victoria Vikings in their Semi Final match at the AHL today. The juniors had stormed back from a 3-0 deficit courtesy of a Varun Kumar hat trick to take the game to a shootout after regulation time.
The two teams were the ones with the strongest defences in the pool stages, India conceding 7 goals, and Victoria 9. The first quarter was played out to their strengths, both teams organising themselves tightly in the defensive areas, and controlling and cancelling each others midfields.
Locked in the stalemate after the first quarter, the Vikings were the ones to score through, Chris Ciriello converting a PC in the 20th minute to take the lead. Two minutes later Aaron Kleinschmidt took advantage of a goalmouth melee to double the lead.
India had a PC in the quarter but Varun Kumar’s flick was smartly parried away by Durst Johan in the Vikings goal. The chance gave the Indian Juniors confidence, and they stormed back into the game, taking control and creating a lot of penetrations into the Victoria circle. They lacked the final pass though as Victoria’s defence held firm to deny them an opening.
In the final minutes of the quarter, Ciriello scored his second PC of the game to give Victoria a 3-0 lead heading into halftime.
India had several chances to pull a goal back in the third quarter, attacking and controlling the game in the midfield. A brilliant passing move at the top of the Victorian circle saw Ajit Pandey drag his shot high. Minutes later Durst was in action again, Pulling off a smart save from Anand Lakra’s bursting run and shot from the top of the circle. Off the rebound, Durst smothered Parvinder Singh’s shot illegally. India had a PC. Victoria saved the first PC, but were penalised with another. Varun Kumar missed his drag flick but improvised with the loose ball to score and open India’s account in the game.
The teams went into the final break trailing 3-1.
Simranjeet Singh’s green card early in the final quarter handed India a disadvantage, but it didn’t matter as they pushed forward in search of goals to get back in the game. Armaan Qureshi came closest picking up a pass from Dipsan Tirkey inside the circle and turning to shoot wide.
With six minutes of the game left, India won a PC and this time Varun didn’t need a second invitation, dragging his shot perfectly into the bottom left corner, to reduce the margin to one goal.
With the momentum having shifted, India started pushing for the equaliser and won another PC in the 56th minute. Varun made no mistake, slotting it into the bottom corner again to drag India level. The game was for the taking.
Victoria went a man down in the final minutes courtesy Tim Cross’s yellow card and the juniors made the most of the numerical advantage, constantly attacking the Vikings circle. With a minute to go, Harjeet Singh had a shot from the top of the box, but Durst parried it away. It was to be the final bit of action as the two teams went into a shootout for a place in the finals.
In the shootout, the Vikings held strong missing a single chance of their five, and winning by the narrowest of margins to take their place in the finals.
India will be playing for the Bronze medal on 9 October 2016 at 07.30 hrs IST.
