The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : France drubs IHF Juniors XI

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 22, 2004

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Sport - Hockey

France drubs IHF Juniors XI

By Our Sports Reporter

HYDERABAD, DEC. 21. France, on a learning mission here, drubbed a disjointed IHF Development Juniors XI 5-0 in the first hockey `Test' at Gachibwli Complex here on Tuesday evening.

It was an impressive performance from France. Its penalty-corner conversion was spot on, scoring from four off the seven it forced. In contrast the IHF Juniors wasted five in all.

France shot into lead in the eighth minute when Durchon Mat latched on to a quick minus after a good run down the centre by Soyed Fred. France dominated the first-half with better positional play. The combination of Durchon Flo, Gouedard Conte and Boyer Julien showed the desired coordination upfront.

France scored the second goal in the 16th minute of a penalty-corner conversion from a neat hit by Soyed Fred. The Indians just didn't come up with the expected effort. Just before the break, France made it 3-0 with Jaquet Steph converting another penalty-corner.

No change in fortunes

The change of ends brought no change in the fortunes for Indians. The only area of improvement was in the unwanted area of aggression in terms of body tackles. Even as Indian Juniors struggled to open the account, France netted the fourth goal through Gaillard Nico in the 43rd minute.

France scored the fifth goal with yet another penalty-corner conversion when Jaquet Steph was spot on target in the 55th minute. There was element of drama when five substitutes from French bench entered the field when there were already seven players on the field. This resulted in the table officials showing the yellow card to one of them.

Indians were thoroughly outplayed and never looked in the game. The French coach Reynaud was surprised that they recorded such an easy win.

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