Sardar Singh breaks down the fairly complex sport of hockey to one primary element — connections. It’s why he barely ever had to look at the goal. Even before he would receive the ball, one of India’s modern-day greats would always be looking for hints from the corner of his eyes to spot a pass. It could be the colour of the socks, the stick… anything really. Many times, he simply had to look into his teammate’s eyes to know where to pass.
The world hailed Sardar’s peripheral vision. But for him, it was plain, simple coordination. “It’s all about connections,” he said.
‘Connections’ inside the striking circle was what India did better as they went from frustrating to flamboyant during the course of the competition. The three field goals they scored on Sunday during the 4-1 win over South Korea were examples of it.
𝑫𝒐𝒖𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒄𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑰𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒂! 🔥
Winners of the Hero Asia Cup Rajgir, Bihar 2025 ✅
Qualified for the FIH Hockey World Cup 2026 ✅#HockeyIndia #IndiaKaGame #HumseHaiHockey #HeroAsiaCupRajgir pic.twitter.com/z6qFMuWd26— Hockey India (@TheHockeyIndia) September 7, 2025
It’s what he wanted India’s forwards to do better. Sardar was speaking after the attackers struggled to find each other inside the striking circle during the only match of the Asia Cup they could not win — against Korea in the Super 4s stage. Watching the forward line make stylish runs inside the D, passing the ball selflessly without having to look up and making the goalkeeper work in Sunday’s final against the same opponent would have made the former India captain smile.
For the first goal, Harmanpreet Singh found Sukhjeet Singh inside the D with a slick pass from the 23m line. Sukhjeet took advantage of a Korean defence that was slow to react to find the top right corner with a fierce reverse hit.
The second and third goals exemplified this change further. Harmanpreet played a long aerial ball towards the baseline in the 28th minute. It bounced once before Sanjay trapped it smoothly and, in a split-second, squared it in front of the goal, knowing there would be some Indian forward trying to get to the end of it. On cue, Dilpreet Singh darted towards the near post, where Sanjay’s pass landed, and smashed it past the Korean goalkeeper.
It was a goal straight from the training ground. In the 45th minute, Dilpreet sprung at the right place once again. Harmanpreet was once again at the heart of the move, drilling in a cheeky through ball through the centre. Raj Kumar Pal played it forward towards the goal, where Dilpreet stepped ahead of his marker to find the back of the net.
🔥 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 & 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐂𝐮𝐩 𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝! 🇮🇳
India’s stellar show at the Hero Asia Cup Rajgir, Bihar 2025 earns them the continental crown and a ticket to the World Cup.#HockeyIndia #IndiaKaGame #HumseHaiHockey #HeroAsiaCupRajgir pic.twitter.com/HQ3nt3Lgh1
— Hockey India (@TheHockeyIndia) September 7, 2025
The player who struggled all night against a lowly Kazakhstan team a week ago had his name on the scoresheet twice in the title match. “Right timing, right positioning, remaining unselfish inside the D and, most crucially, forging connections with forwards. These are things we focussed on, that’s our aim and we got that right,” Dilpreet said.
India have been doing one of the harder parts right — getting into the circle. The last-mile connectivity, colloquially speaking, was missing — the forwards could not provide the finish.
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That changed in the last three matches. Half of India’s goals against Malaysia, China and South Korea — the last three matches of the Asia Cup — came from inside the 9-yard zone from the goal to the penalty spot. It’s been India’s Achilles Heels for the last few years, forcing coach Craig Fulton to even get an Australian expert, Michael McCann, earlier this year for a brief period.
160 goals in 2023 to 73 this year
According to the International Hockey Federation data, the number of goals India has scored has gone down sharply in the last three years — from 160 goals in 36 matches in 2023, it fell to 94 in 39 games last year. This year, the team has scored 73 goals in 23 matches, which is lower in absolute terms than last year but greater in percentage.
Hockey coach Siddharth Pandey said a big reason for fewer field goals is that the one-on-one defending is the ‘best it’s ever been in the history of hockey.’ “I think in the last 10 years, starting with (Australia’s) Mark Knowles who really made it into an art, 1v1 defending has gotten far, far better,” Pandey, the technical director of Hockey India League side Hyderabad Toofans, said.
Improved defending skills mean that the space and time inside the ‘D’ that forwards were afforded 20 years ago is now a fraction of that. With the defenders upskilling, ‘the default option on a circle entry is to earn a penalty corner’. “Because you’ve got someone who can score, or who will give a better option of scoring. So, I think during the Dhanraj or Shahbaz era, the idea used to be that, ‘I’ll score’. That has subsided to a large extent because as soon as there’s a circle entry you’re looking for a foot,” Pandey added. In India’s case, it means heavy reliance on Harmanpreet’s drag-flicks.
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Beyond these cold stats, coach Fulton spoke about an intangible that the numbers don’t reveal — composure. “The crowd is baying for blood so they want goals, goals. And then when the noises go up, everyone thinks we have to hit it harder or do more. But we just need to stay a little bit more calmer in that moment,” Fulton had said after the previous Korea match.
He’d have been pleased by the calmness his team showed against the same opponent on Sunday. More so in the 9-yard zone.
