| |
Feb
3
Written by:
Sundeep Misra
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
India 2 Germany 0
Baljit Singh, the Indian goalkeeper, gave glimpses of a certain Mark Patterson as the Chandigarh boy saved as many as eight penalty corners and a few field attempts to ensure that India sailed through with a 2-0 winning margin against Olympic Champions Germany.
Mark Patterson, the former Indian goalkeeper, now settled in Australia had a similar confidence and aggressive attitude when keeping for India.
India scored through their former captain Dilip Tirkey in the 2nd minute and Prabhjot Singh in the 53rd minute, both indirect penalty corner conversions.
With this win, India has seven points with two wins and a draw after three matches. Holland has the same number of points but are at the top position with a better goal average.
India were swift in the midfield but it was the defence that came under pressure from some clever play by the German midfielders. They switched play often and had the Indian defence under tremendous pressure.
The lead was India’s in the 2nd minute when off their only penalty corner in the first half, Sandeep Singh failed to connect and the ball was passed to Dilip Tirkey whose powerful hit clipped the stick of a German defender to sail into goal.
Germany had a better control of the first half. They earned seven penalty corners and thanks to some brilliant anticipation by Baljit managed to sneak through without conceding a goal. With most of their Olympians not here, the Germans showed that they had enough young talent to be a force by February 2010 and challenge for a third consecutive World Cup title in New Delhi.
India earned their second penalty corner in the 53rd minute. Sandeep Singh’s low flick rebounded off the German goalkeeper’s pads. Prabhjot, standing right in the middle of the circle, trapped and with a powerful reverse shot increased the lead for India.
Germany had a few chances in the second half including a penalty corner, their eighth in the match, but Baljit was impenetrable.
Ironically, Germany played like India, wasting field opportunities and penalty corners. While India had a few chances but they made them count.
Tags:
8 comment(s) so far...
Re: India stun Germany
Good Job Baljit between the Posts! Conceding eight penalty corners against a young German team is not a good sign. Defense needs to tighten up. Shame on Indian media, beating Sri Lanka is the biggest news in India. No body talks about their national game. In United States, I am canceling the services of “SAHARA NEWS”, “Headlines” and “Aaj Tak” for not giving any coverage to field hockey. I will suggest to all the hockey fans in North America to do the same. Let’s ask “JUS Punjabi” channel to come forward for Hockey fans in Canada and America. Thanks to www.indianhockey.com for updating US.
By Bhaji Dhillon on
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
|
Re: India stun Germany
We always try to give our readers the latest coverage which sometimes we miss out because of weak hockey system in India. Hoping India wins this series.
(Administrator)
By Chitresh Singh on
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
|
Re: India stun Germany
Thank God some one still writes about field hockey. You guys doing good job on keeping us up to date. Hopefully someday media will start reporting HOCKEY. From USA
By Kanwardip S. Kailey on
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
|
Re: India stun Germany
Though the win was sweet, I did not really enjoy the strategy adopted..I thought the India played better at Monchengladbach in a losing cause... Sandeep's overheads and his attempt to penetrate the German defence with slap shots from the Indian half was stupidity....We were not trying to build the attacks from the Midfield....All that the midfield was doing was running up and down..This Indian team has 3 very penetrative midfielders in the form of Gurbaj, Arjun and Vikram... But it was sad to see nothing developing from these guys...Sundeep Sir can we have Harinder Singh part of this forum... I am sure at the end of the Day this would help Indian Hockey....This would be the first of its kind...Anyway Indianhockey.com, you guys are doing a great job..You guys along with Stick2hockey.com are my last hopes...I dont have any hopes from our Electronic Media...All the Best
By Srikanth.S on
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
|
Re: India stun Germany
I think I wrote this earlier but let's not blame the media. Hockey needs to clean up it's act before the media starts reporting about it again. I agree with the argument that news is news so what if it's cricket or hockey. But at the same time, cricket is a hugely popular sport and it deserves its place because it has performed. There is no doubt in my mind that if India was performing at the Olympics, World Cup or the Champions Trophy, the media would have been reporting about it. Let's start performing first, the media would automatically come. At the end of the day, let's be glad that a few people do report the sport and that's not because they get anything from it - it's purely love for the sport.
By Sundeep Misra on
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
|
Re: India stun Germany
Thanks to you that you developed this website on hockey. Even in the news i didn't hear about the Indian team winning. I read it in the newspaper and now here on the website. From Pune.
By roshan shahare on
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
|
Re: India stun Germany
Brilliant Goalie helped us win.... Yes we haven't had a great goalie for a long long time, we have seen brilliance from Adrian D'Souza in patches but consistency is the key...
I hope the performance which Indians have shown in this tournament helps us gain confidence and we play well in future also... Amen !!
By Bhavdeep Virdee on
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
|
Re: India stun Germany
confident Indian team can beat any side...
By Rahul on
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
|
|
|
|
|
|
|