India fought valiantly before losing 3-4 to defending champions South Korea in the final and the players feel that a bad umpiring decision at the fag end of the match cost them the title.
Australian umpire Murray Grime awarded Korea a penalty corner just two minutes from the hooter when Rupinderpal Singh tackled a Korean forward inside the circle, but the Indian players feel it was wrong judgement by the umpire and the tackle was a clean one.
“The last penalty corner which Korea got was wrongly given. By no chance it was a penalty corner. It was a clean tackle from Rupinder, but the umpire debated that he deliberately did it,” an Indian player said on condition of anonymity.
The resultant penalty corner hurt India badly as Kang Moon Kweon made no mistake with the chance and converted it to shatter the hopes of handful of Indian supporters present at the Sultan Azlan Shah Stadium.
Asked India’s interim coach Roelant Oltmans about the decisive penalty corner, he simply said: “It’s better not to say anything about it.”
Disappointed to have faltered at the final hurdle, Oltmans nevertheless said the players should be proud of their performance in the ninth edition of the Asia Cup.
“Obviously, I am disappointed with the end result but we are proud of the way we came back into the game. In the first half we didn’t play well but in the second half we really played outstanding hockey. We scored two fantastic goals,” he said.
“This team has fought with its heart out. We became strong as a team with every game. The way we played in this tournament we should be proud of ourselves,” Oltmans said.
“It will take a little bit time. We have to play this kind of finals more often. I remember when I started with Holland we lost first three finals before winning 10 in a row. So, hopefully this a good start,” he added.
Oltmans praised his young forwardline and said it was good to see competition for places in the team.