Games now long shot for Canada
Canada is going to need some help from India on Friday, then find a way to beat a motivated host country on Saturday if its men’s field hockey team is going to advance to the London 2012 Olympics.
The Canadian squad, with 12 of 18 players from B. C., lost 3- 2 to undefeated India in New Delhi on Wednesday to fall to 2- 2 in the round- robin of a six- country Olympic qualifying event.
The top two countries following the round- robin games meet Saturday, with the winner booking a berth to London. India, an eight- time Olympic champion, shockingly failed to qualify for the 2008 Games in Beijing.
Canada needs to beat 3- 1 France on Friday and have 4- 0 India defeat 3- 1 Poland to create a three- way tie for second. Canada, which owns a plus- 21 goal differential to Poland’s plus- 13 and France’s plus- nine, would take second on a goal differential tiebreaker.
Wednesday’s game was described in Indian newspapers as a “pulsating encounter” and an “action- filled thriller.”
Mark Pearson of Vancouver had two good early chances for Canada, but hit the crossbar on one shot and had another turned aside by India goaltender P. R. Sreejesh.
Shivendra Singh opened the scoring for India in the 26th minute. Star forward Sandeep Singh then made it 2- 0 five minutes into the second half on a penalty corner. But Pearson, off a goalmouth melee in the 50th minute, and Scott Tupper, on Canada’s first penalty corner in the 53rd minute, struck quickly to pull Canada even.
Sandeep Singh scored the winner for India on a low drag flick past Canadian goaltender Antoni Kindler, who was a standout.
Four cards were handed out by the referees.
“I’m happy with parts of our performance but we cannot be satisfied with that game,” Canadian head coach Robin D’abreo told Field Hockey Canada. “Our focus will now shift to France. They are a strong team and we will need to be at our best to secure a win.”
India head coach Micheal Nobbs said his forwards “didn’t finish as well as we wanted. We had our chances and could have sealed the match much earlier.”
Nobbs said it doesn’t matter which country India faces in the final and suggested he would use Friday’s game against Poland to “experiment a bit. I don’t see them making the final, but, of course, I can be wrong.”
In the meantime, despite a 1- 0 win over Poland on Wednesday, the Canadian women, who are also playing in New Delhi, were officially eliminated from contention.