Press Trust of India
Raipur, Dec 5: Inconsistency continued to haunt India as they conceded an early goal to lose 0-1 to Belgium and crash out of the title race of the Hockey World League Finals here Saturday.
India conceded a soft goal in the fifth minute of the second semifinal encounter when Cedric Charlier scored from a field strike for Belgium, which eventually separated both the teams at the Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel Stadium here.
Belgium will now face Australia in the summit clash Sunday while India play the Netherlands for the bronze medal in an earlier match in the day.
The Indians were slow to get off the blocks as they hardly troubled the Belgian defence in the first two quarters. But the hosts came out with more purpose after the change of ends to create numerous scoring opportunities but their forward line was again guilty of failing to finish off the moves.
After failing to register a single shot on the opposition goal in the first 30 minutes, India managed 11 tries in the last two quarters but failed to convert those into goals.
The Indians also enjoyed 59 per cent possession in the match as against their rivals’ 41, while the hosts made 24 circle penetrations compared to Belgium’s 16. Interestingly, both the teams failed to secure a single penalty corner in the entire match.
Things did not look good for India even before the resumption of the match as goalkeeper PR Sreejesh got hurt above the knee in the warm-up session and did not take part in the mandatory national anthem ceremony, drawing fears that he might not start in the first XI. However, he recovered in time and took the field.
However, inconsistency which has been the bane of India during this tournament again surfaced with the hosts failing to put up a single combined move in the first two quarters.
“After every bad game, we have played a superb one. Let’s hope that we do so tomorrow (Sunday) against the Netherlands. That will help us end our medal drought” Roelant Oltmans stated after the match.
