The seasoned South Koreans, on the other, despite having lost to us in the league, are a team that is capable of bouncing back and their asset is physical fitness. Also most of the Koreans have been playing together as a team for years and hence theirs is a well-knit squad. Coming to the semi-finals, Japan were no match for the Indians. The Indians were impressive alright but they took too much time to settle down into a rhythm.

We should have won by a far bigger margin and the number of chances we squandered is really not pardonable in top-flight hockey. There will be days when we can get away with it, but there will also be days when we will pay a heavy price forthis. All those who saw the Indians play and dominate the semi-finals in the Commonwealth games and yet lose to Malaysia will agree with me.

We missed quite a lot of chances on the field, and that fact will not be lost on the team management. They will have to sit down and hopefully rectify that before the final against South Korea.

In defence, the Indian goalkeeper, Ashish Ballal, was not tested much. While we might feel happy at having got away with just one goal despite so many penalty corners, what needs to looked at carefully is the reason why we gave away so many penalty corners. When a team allows so many penalty corners against a weak team like Japan, it clearly shows that the defence needs to pull up its socks. We simply cannot afford to be slack against a professional side like Korea, who apart from being very fast on the field also have a very high success percentage of conversion of penalty corners.In the past, I remember occasions when we have lost to Korea mainly because of our failure inconverting penalty corners and field goal opportunities. On the other hand, the Koreans make good whatever chances that come their way. If you recall, against Pakistan the Koreans had a high success rate of conversion in a close match.

I sometimes got the feeling that the Indians thought they had the match won even before getting onto the field and may have taken things lightly against Japan. In today's hockey, where physical fitness and ability to convert half-chances count a great deal, that can turn out to be a big mistake. Fortunately that did not happen against Japan. At the same time, I would give credit to the captain Dhanraj Pillay who scored a great goal. I hope he can get some more like that and if he does, the gold medal should be coming with the team on the flight back home.

The Asian Games in Bangkok is in some ways a repeat of Hiroshima Asian Games in 1994, when we beat South Korea in the league and then Japan in the semi-finals, while Pakistan lost to Korea in the other semi-final. But Ihope the script is not repeated in the final, which we lost to Korea. But the gut feeling is that this Indian team has a better chance than ever before. And what's more is that at stake is not only a gold medal, but also an automatic berth for Sydney Olympics in two years time.