Saturday, January 18, 2014

Fighting India lose 1-2 to Belgium, settle for 6th place

Engineering one of the most memorable wins in international hockey against Germany in recent times, the confidence of the Indian men’s hockey team was soaring as they took on Belgium in the 5th place play-off tie at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium.

But all that ‘high’ was brought down to earth by Tom Boon, who scored a penalty corner goal in the dying moments to pave the way for a 2-1 for Belgium.

Earlier, India weathered a lot of Belgium raids in the first half - save for two attempts from Affan Yousuf and SV Sunil – the opening half belonged to Belgium with India defending stoutly as the half-time scoreline read 0-0.

The Red Lions upped the ante in the second half and created three penalty corners, but Indian goalkeeper PR Sreejesh was bodacious, coming up with high quality saves to keep his side in the contest.

India mounted their raids and soon forced their first short corner but Rupinder Pal Singh’s grounder was foiled by Belgium.

Birthday boy Nikin Thimmaiah, who seemed to have had a bad day office in office essaying repeated passing bloomers, gave the noisy home crowd what they wanted opening the account for India in the 70th minute.



The Indian defence which stood tall for most part of the match, allowed the Belgium to fightback in the final three minutes of play. Belgium equalized through van Aubel Florent in the 67th minute before Tom Boon scored the match-clincher off their fourth penalty corner in the 69th minute.

All and said done, Terry Walsh must be smug with the 6th place finish by India.

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