FIH Pro League: Spain deny India season’s first win

The Indian men’s hockey team was less than two minutes away from grabbing their first win of FIH Pro League when Spain scored the equaliser through Bruno Font in the 59th minute to take the game into penalty shoot-out. The Spaniards grabbed the bonus point thanks to a 4-3 win at Tasmania Hockey Centre in Hobart on Tuesday.

It was once again a heartbreak for Craig Fulton’s men who had taken the lead through Maninder Singh in the 19th minute. Hardik Singh intercepted the ball at the 23m line and played it to Maninder at the top of the D. He controlled it well before firing it into the bottom right corner with a reverse hit.



After earning their first point of the season against Australia in the last match, it was a great start for India, and they went all out in search for more. But the finishing wasn’t great inside the D. Also, they overall won four penalty corners but failed to score either of them. Amit Rohidas missed two while Jugraj Singh and Rajinder Singh failed to convert one each.

Another worrying sign was the way India at times dropped their shoulders and gave away the ball easily to Spaniards in the middle.

Even coach Fulton addressed it at the half-time break when he said, “We are giving away the ball too much. We are trying the right things, but we need to be a little patient when we are building up. If we keep giving them gifts, then it’s going to come back and hurt us.”

What was once again impressive though was the team’s defensive play. Led by Jarmanpreet Singh, playing his 150th match, they kept a good structure, came back in numbers whenever Spain went on the counter and played with a lot of conviction. They also prevented Spain from scoring off the eight PCs they earned.

Both the goalkeepers — Mohith HS and Suraj Karkera — did well, too. Karkera did concede late when Font scored a screamer, but he made a double save in the dying seconds of the match to make certain the game went into the shoot-outs.

Mohith will, however, have to do better as far as penalty shoot-outs are concerned because once again, he failed to make a single save as Spain scored from all their four attempts. Spanish goalkeeper Luis Calzado meanwhile denied both Abhishek and Hardik Singh.

Despite the result, coach Fulton would be pleased with the ‘performance’ as that was his sole focus ahead of the game. India however will feel hard done by the fact that one of their goals was disallowed late in the third quarter. Early in the game, Spain also had one of their goals ruled out.

With back-to-back draws after five consecutive losses, skipper Hardik Singh, who played deeper in attack quite frequently, will now hope to bag the team’s first win of the season when they face Australia on Wednesday.



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