New Delhi: After missing out on the quarter-finals, India got a bit of a lift on Thursday when they beat Argentina 4-2 in the first of their playoff games and will now take on Pakistan in the 9th-10th place playoff at the Junior Men's Hockey World Cup here at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium.
India came out with a re-worked strategy of controlled aggression to register a convincing victory with goals from Ramandeep Singh (4th and 31st), Amit Rohidas (7th) and Gurjinder Singh (40th).
India converted two of the four penalty corners they earned through Rohidas and Gurjinder - with the latter scoring in every game India have played this tournament. For Argentina, the deficit was reduced by Lucas Martinez's field goal in the 39th minute after the first half ended at 3-0. Manuel Sacchetti then made it 4-2 in the 69th minute, but the writing was on the wall by then.
The Indians didn't go all out from the word go, something they did in the pool games. Instead, the first half saw them spreading the ball around trying to find holes in the Argentine defence to penetrate.
The strategy paid off almost immediately with Ramandeep putting India ahead off a field goal in the 4th minute itself. Three minutes later India earned their first penalty corner and Rohidas scored off it with a grounded flick.
As the clock went past 30 minutes, a brilliant solo effort from Ramandeep put India ahead 3-0. Ramandeep, who had a disappointing tournament until Thursday, received the ball at 25-yard line and beat three defenders to enter the circle and score his second goal in style with a diving hit.
The second half saw India opening up a bit more, which allowed Martinez to reduce the margin. But the very next minute the hosts earned another PC and Gurjinder made no mistake to flick the ball into the net.
India increased the intensity of their attacks in the last 30 minutes but failed to find the goal even as they threatened to pump in at least a couple more. On the contrary, it was Argentina who found the mark to bring the deficit down to two goals. But Sacchetti's goal came too late in the day to give the Argentine team a chance to change outcome of the match.
Earlier, Pakistan beat South Africa 4-0 to earn a place in the 9th-10th place playoff where they will now face archrivals India.
Thursday also saw four quarterfinal being played with Netherlands, Germany, France and Malaysia going through to the semis. Netherlands beat New Zealand 3-2, France upset Belgium 5-4, Malaysia beat Korea 2-1 to enter the semis for the first time since 1982 and defending champions Germany got the better of Australia 4-3.
Comments
0 comment