The first quarter started with Johor getting the game underway, in front of a huge home crowd. Baljit Singh from Johor injected the ball into the D, finding Amanraj Singh but was defended well by Balraj Singh of Singapore. Singapore went on a quick transition, as Ishwarpal Singh found Jasmeet Singh in the middle of the pitch, who after bringing the ball into the D and beating the Johor defender, unfortunately placed his shot wide. Right before the quarter ended, Johor got their first goal of the game as Amanraj deflected the ball into the back of the net. Singapore trailed by a goal at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter began with Singapore fired up to get the equalizer. Balraj injected the ball into the D seeing Naamras Singh’s run to the near post, but the ball was just too heavy for Naamras to gather. Not long after, Singapore clinched their first penalty corner of the game through Suraj Singh. Balraj stepped up, hoping to continue his hundred percent conversion rate against Johor. However, this time, he was crucially denied right on the line by the Johor’s postman! Just four minutes later, Amanraj attacked from the right wing, as he brought the ball into the D before smashing it past Sukhbir Singh. The 2nd quarter ended with Singapore down by 2 goals.
Both teams quickly gathered in, not wasting a single second of the 10 minutes break given. Singapore made a few tactical changes with Gurvinder Singh swapping positions with Balraj, which eventually paid off with Singapore earning 2 penalty corners but was to no avail. Right after the second penalty corner was denied, Johor went on the counter attack and extended their lead once again through Sarwan Singh in a 2 on 1 situation.
As the Singapore team was rallying from the quick counter attacks, Johor put the game beyond our reach when, Baljit brilliant injection the ball into our D, finding Nischal Singh, who put the ball into the top right hand corner of the goal. Down 4-0, and only a few minutes of the game remaining, Singapore were awarded a penalty corner and finally scored with Ishwarpal confidently converting it. The game ended with a score line of 4-1, with Singapore emerging as first runners-up.
Balraj Singh was later interviewed by Vavel Singapore given his determination and will-power during the tournament.
Preparation before the game
“As a team I believe we were pretty well prepared for the finals largely due to the hard work put in by coach Bakri. The video analysis we did prior to the game helped us see our previous mistakes and how to rectify them. On a personal level this was my first senior G cup final, in fact first G cup final all together but having played in finals before I just did what I normally do before games and didn’t treat it any differently”
Drag flick denied
“I was very shocked that my drag was saved by the postman, hit the post and then went out especially since I had scored in a similar spot in the group stages. Kudos to the postman for saving that though, the game may have panned out differently if we had gotten that goal in the first quarter ”
Down by four goals
“At 4 goals down, it was inevitable that morale was low and personally the fatigue was kicking in quite badly in the second half. However, the team continued to push on to try and mount a comeback, even earning a number of PCs but to no avail But I do feel this was not one of my better games and I could have done a lot more to help the team and perhaps win”
Lessons learnt
“It was a bittersweet tournament having lost out in the finals to a team we had beaten in the Causeway Cup. Perhaps we let the occasion get to us resulting in various mistakes which ultimately led to our loss. On the bright side, we reached our first finals since 2014 and there is an upward trend, from reaching the semis last year to the finals now, so hopefully we can regroup and bring the cup home next year. We have shown that we can play decent hockey in this G cup and even come back from one goal down, so hopefully this team will be able to stick together and be joined by other key players that were missing this year.”