Hockey India 3-6 Netherlands

Netherlands Defeat India 6-3

When the coach of opposite team says that they could have easily scored2-3 more goals, then something is seriously wrong with the team. These words were said by the Dutch coach Paul Van Ass. India was comfortably beaten by an inexperienced side of Netherlands 6-3 in the ongoing Hamburg Masters tournament. The Dutch team has 8 players from the last year’s junior World Cup team and 3 players debuted for the senior team in the match.

Except Sardar Singh every one had an ordinary game and services of Arjun Halappa was missed in the game. The inexperienced team performed very well against much seasoned Indian team. The man marking of Holland was very good and their presence in Indian D was also good. Indian team was again very sloppy with the poor passing causing troubles for the team. India has still not switched from individual game mode fully and Netherlands team took advantage of this and scored 6 goals. Half time score was 4-1 for Holland and it looked the game was over. But India managed to pull 2 goals but also conceded 2 in the process.

Some players (read:seniors) we not putting their head in the game as they should have, but nevertheless Netherlands team played well and gave took most of the opportunities and scored. Goal scorers for India were Dhanjay Mahadik, Sandeep Singh and Ravipal Singh.

India play Germany today, and as I write the scoreline is 2-2, I seriously hope India wins this one….