The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : Defence blundered: Rajinder (Jr.)

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 19, 2005

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Sport - Hockey

Defence blundered: Rajinder (Jr.)

K. Keerthivasan

CHENNAI: India failed to qualify for the next edition of the Champions Trophy going down to Pakistan 3-4 in the fifth-sixth play-off match here on Sunday. Talking to media later, India's chief coach Rajinder Singh (Jr.) said, "We need players with good body structure who could be able to withstand the pressure of modern hockey which is moving towards power and strength."

On the match, Rajinder said, "after a good start, our defence committed lot of blunders. There was no control and poor judgement. He emphasized that in the tournament," our defence was good, but our forwardline missed a lot of scoring chances."

He explained that with key players such as Vikram Pillai, Viren Rasquinha, Vinay and Rajpal Singh carrying injuries, the bench strength, in a fast match as today, was tested and couldn't do justice.

Maurits Hendriks, The Spain coach, said he was pleased with the way the tournament has ended for his team, after finishing third. He said, "we showed our strengths. We created lots of scoring opportunities and gave little away. We had a tough start but I am very happy with our comeback. We were almost in the final."

The absence of Pau Quemada, a key Spanish player, who withdrew after suffering from a stomach problem, said Hendriks, "came as a shock but we recuperated from that." He said he was happy with his team maintaining the speed in the rain.

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