AFTER AUSTRALIA DEBACLE, INDIA BOUNCE BACK WITH 3-0 WIN AGAINST SPAIN
After their worst loss in the Olympics --- a 1-7 defeat to Australia --- India needed a confidence booster. And men’s hockey team led by Manpreet Singh got exactly that with a 3-0 win against Spain, who are world No. 9, at the Oi Hockey Stadium on Tuesday.
With the win, India jumped to second position—behind Australia but above New Zealand, Argentina, Japan and Spain—in Group A with six points (two wins) from three games. In the day’s other games in the group, Australia thrashed defending champions Argentina 5-2 and hosts Japan drew 2-2 with New Zealand.
Forward Simranjeet Singh (14th) scored his first goal at the Olympics to get India off the mark. That was followed by a brace from drag-flicker Rupinder Pal Singh (15th, 51st)—one via a stroke and the next through a penalty corner.
India started aggressively, dominating possession and creating goalscoring opportunities. They forged ahead through Simranjeet’s quickfire field goal following a pass from the right flank. One minute later, India won back-to-back penalty corners, resulting in a stroke which Rupinder converted easily.
The second and third quarters went goalless with India goalkeeper PR Sreejesh denying Spain a number of times.
India downed hatches in the initial minutes of the final quarter but soon pressed forward to earn a short corner which was duly converted by Rupinder to make it 3-0.
“Better result today but a lot of things to work on from an improvement perspective,” said India coach Graham Reid. “The fact that we gave too many corners, that’s always a concern when that happens. But the team did really well in terms of defending the PC.
“The first quarter was very well, we could move the ball and it was what we planned to do. 2-0 is the worst score in hockey because after that we were relaxed and we struggled a bit in the second and third quarter to get back in the game. We managed to do that in the fourth quarter and tried to play simple hockey and that’s what we ended up doing,” he said.
NEW DELHI:
Rupinder Pal Singh.