Indian girls won their first-ever Junior World Cup hockey bronze medal creating history after hammering England by 3-2 on penalties at Monchengladbach in Germany on Sunday. Notably, this is India's first medal ever in a World Cup competition. Previously, the senior Indian girls hauled a fourth place finish in the 1974 World Cup at Mandelieu in France. The Netherlands won Gold medal by overpowering Argentina by 4-2 in a shoot-out drama.
Actually, the star of the show for India was goalkeeper Bigan Soy, who had not played even for a minute in the tournament before this match. Incidentally, India replaced their first goalkeeper Ningombam with Soy when the result was 1-1 after 70 minutes of action. During the shootout, where only 5 out of the 14 penalties were converted, Soy saved five attempts from the English women while India breezed past with a 3-2 margin on penalties. Meanwhile, Rani kept her nerve to score twice and Navneet Kaur struck the winning goal.
England started off the better of the two sides, but failed to capitalize most of their opportunities during the regulation time. India took the lead through Rani in the 13th minute against the run of play with a swift counter-attack. Remarkably, the goal gave the Indian girls ample confidence as they dominated for the rest of the first period.
Subsequently, England emerged with a positive frame of mind in the second half and obtained their equalizer through Anna Toman. The Derbyshire girl carefully rolled the ball past Ningombam in a crowded circle. The teams played ultra-defensive hockey as the match proceeded towards the final minutes of the regulation time. In fact, the shootout proved to be a comedy of errors with India winning by the barest of margins.
India coach Neil Hawgood commented after the match, in lines with the strategy of placing Soy in goal in case of a penalty shootout that their goalkeeper Bigan Soy did a great job. Truly, it was clear, when it comes down to shoot-outs, she will be in the goal.
Apparently, Soy was delighted to be given the chance and contribute to her team's success. She expressed that she did her best and it is a good feeling to know that she saved her team. She is very glad. She now feels as she would have played the entire tournament.
Outstandingly, this victory in Germany is a first-ever World Cup medal for women in any FIH world event. On the other hand, the men's team had won gold in 1975 at Kuala Lumpur, silver in 1973 at Amstelveen in Holland and bronze in 1971 at Barcelona in Spain. Remarkably, Indian women's most well known victory before this junior World Cup was the gold medal 2002 Commonwealth Games at Manchester in England.
