The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : India off to a disastrous start

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 17, 2006

Sport

Sport - Hockey

India off to a disastrous start

New Delhi: India started its campaign in the four-nation invitational hockey tournament in Germany on a disastrous note, going down 1-4 to the host at Warsteiner Hockey Park in Monchengladbach on Saturday.

The match was tied 1-1 at half-time but India, playing under new coach V. Baskaran, frittered away the good work by letting Germany pump in three goals after the breather.

Christopher Zeller, who scored three goals (23rd, 37th and 69th minutes), was the main architect of the host team's win while Sebastian Draguhn (44th) chipped in with one. Young striker Tushar Khandekar (29th) was the lone scorer for India.

Spain defeated Argentina 1-0 in another match on Saturday.

Error-prone attack

In the absence of some of its main players, Germany's error-prone attack faltered while penetrating the Indian defence in the first half.

After Zeller failed to convert the first penalty corner, Matthias Witthaus lost a big opportunity to score in the 21st minute, thanks to the exploits of Indian goalkeeper Bharat Chetri.

The Germans drew first blood when a Nicolas Emmerling pass from the backline found a perfectly positioned Zeller in front of the goal and the latter shot home without wasting any time. A few minutes later, India fought back to score the equaliser through Khandekar.

The Germans played with purpose after the change of ends while India lost track.

A couple of minutes after the break, Zeller converted a penalty corner to give his side a 2-1 lead and within 10 minutes Draguhn netted the third for the host.

The Germans messed up a few more chances, including two penalty corners. India tried to get its act together but could not succeed. Rajpal Singh came closer to reducing the margin but his hit was far off the target.

Final nail

In the dying moments, Zeller put it past Chetri once again to hammer the final nail on India's coffin.

Indian team manager G.M. Srivastava said the team played well in the first half, but could not keep up the momentum in the second. "Our performance was very good in the first half. But something went wrong in the second," he told PTI over phone from Monchengladbach on Sunday.

However, he expressed satisfaction over the players' ability to acclimatise and stay fit. "It's good that our players have managed to acclimatise very quickly and all are fit. Key players like Dilip Tirkey, Gagan Ajit Singh and Jugraj Singh played almost the full duration of the match," he said. — PTI

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