Bhubaneswar: The Indian women’s team showed their dominance at the Kalinga Stadium as they thumped USA 5-1 in the first leg of their Olympic Qualifiers fixture here Friday, inching closer to next year’s Tokyo Games. India have virtually booked their place for the mega event next year, it will be hard for USA as they need to win by at least a margin of four or more goals to qualify.
Playing for the first time at the venue, the Indians never looked in any kind of discomfort as Gurjit Kaur led the rout with a brace. Navneet Kaur, Lilima Minz and Sharmila Devi scored one apiece. Prior to this encounter the head-to-head count of both the teams read 11 times with the Americans prevailing eight times to India’s only once. Two games had ended in draws.
After a barren first quarter, India finally got the lead when local girl Lilima slapped home the final of three passes much to the cheer for the local fans. It started with Sushila Pukhrambam whose short pass found skipper Rani Rampal on the right. The skipper pushed the ball for Neha Goyal who foxed a couple of USA defenders to put the ball for Lilima to slot home.
The Sjoerd Marijne-coached side didn’t have to wait for long for the next goal as they netted twice in as many minutes to make the scoreline 3-0. Sharmila perfectly placed a pass supplied by her skipper Rani to double the advantage, before Gurjit’s fiery low penalty corner from a drag-flick proved too hot for USA goalie Bing.
The scoreline went to 4-0 just 30 seconds into the final quarter when Navneet, after collecting a pass from Salima Tete, slotted home. The rampage continued as Gurjit netted her second of the match through a penalty stroke in the 51st minute to make it a high five for the home team.
USA pulled one back through a stroke three minutes later through Erin Matson but it was too little too late by then.
“The quality of the match must be high in ball possession. I think this was not our best but we are really happy with the win,” said Marijne after the game.