2018–19 Men’s FIH Series Finals: India and South Africa join Canada and Malaysia for Olympic Qualifiers

Unchallenged hosts and World No. 5 tournament favourites, India convincingly won 2018–19 Men’s FIH Series Finals held at Bhubaneswar, India. The 6 finalists of three such Series finals qualify with 8 more teams enter 2019 Men’s FIH Olympic Qualifiers to be played on 2019 Men’s FIH Olympic Qualifiers to compete for a place in 2020 Summer Olympics. While the third leg is being played at Le Touquet, France from 15–23 June, during the first leg Canada defeated hosts Malaysia at Kuala Lumpur (26 April – 4 May) and both qualified.

Tournament Statistics for 2018–19 Men’s FIH Series Finals at Bhubaneswar

Matches: 20
Goals: 120
Max Goals Scored: India 35 (23 at pool and 12 in SF and Final)
Hattricks: Matkovskiy (5 vs Uzbek), Akashdeep (3 vs Uzbekistan)
Biggest wins: 12-1 (Russia def Uzbek), 10-0 (India def Russia and Uzbek)

Indian Results

Pool:
Def Russia 10-0
Def Poland 3-1
Def Uzbekistan 10-0
SF: Def Japan 7-2
Final: Def South Africa 5-1

Final Standings

1. India
2. South Africa
3. Japan
4. USA
5. Russia
6. Poland
7. Mexico
8. Uzbekistan

Awards:

Best Player: Manpreet Singh (India)
Best Goalkeeper: Jonathan Klages (USA)
Best Young player: Vivek Prasad (India)
Top Goalscorers: 6 goals each by Varun Kumar, Harmanpreet Singh (India) and Semen (Russia)

All Match Results
Pool A results

Poland def Uzbekistan 4-0
India def Russia 10-0 (2 Akashdeep and Harmanpreet, 1 Nilakanta, Simranjeet, Amit, Varun, Gursahibjit, Vivek)
Russia def Uzbekistan 12-1 (5 goals by Matkovskiy)
India def Poland 3-1 (2 Manpreet, 1 Harmanpreet)
Russia def Poland 3-2
India def Uzbekistan 10-0 (3 Akashdeep, 2 Varun and Mandeep, 1 Amit, Nilakanta, Gusahibjit)

Pool B Results

USA def South Africa 2-0
Japan def Mexico 3-1
USA def Mexico 9-0
Japan def South Africa 2-0
USA vs Japan 2-2
South Africa def Mexico 6-0

Cross-overs June 12

Japan def Poland 6-2
South Africa def Russia 2-1

SF: 14 June

India def Japan 7-2 (2 Ramandeep, 1 Harmanpreet, Varun, Hardik, Gursahibjit, Vivek)
South Africa def USA 2-1

Final Day: 15 June

3rd Place: Japan def USA 4-2
Final: India def South Africa 5-1 (2 Harmanpreet, Varun, 1 Vivek)