India, Oct. 2 -- The Indian women's hockey team has done it. After 44 long years, they ended the wait for the gold medal at the Asian Games by upsetting defending champions and Paris Olympics silver medallists China to book their ticket to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Now it is over to the men, favourites unlike their women counterparts, who prepare to face Malaysia in the gold medal match on Saturday in Kakamigahara.

Beyond continental supremacy, an automatic qualification spot for the 2028 Olympics is on the line. For the defending champions, victory would secure successive Asian Games gold medals for the first time in the country's rich hockey history. Standing in their way is an unbeaten Malaysia desperate to claim their first Asi...