FIH Pro League: Disappointing day for Indian men & women

Indian women lost 3-4 to Spain, while the men were defeated 1-4 by Germany in FIH Pro League games.

It was a disappointing day for Indian hockey with both the men and women dropping points in their respective FIH Pro League games at the Kalinga Stadium here on Tuesday.

Resuming after a day’s break, the Indian women went down 3-4 to Spain having lost to England in shootout in their previous game while the men, playing without some of its main players, barely put up a fight in their 1-4 loss to Germany.

The women paid the price for being erratic and wayward despite starting well as Spain raked up its third win on the trot to climb up to second spot. Debutants Sakshi Rana and Jyoti Singh impressed in patches, the former scoring her maiden international goal, but barring the third quarter when the Indians appeared to proactively seek parity, the team seemed to rely more on its opponent’s mistakes to find the target.

India had to wait till the 19th minute for the opener, Baljeet Kaur perfectly positioned in front of the goal to deflect Deepika’s pass in. Two minutes later, the ball traversed the circle from right to left of the Indian circle before Sofia Rogoski found the net through the smallest of gaps between Savita Punia’s shoulders and the post.

The lead kept changing hands, India capitalising on goalmouth melees, till 3-3 before Lucia Jimenez took a quick free hit from just outside the circle in the 52nd minute, took a step inside and unleashed a powerful smash that left the entire home team’s defence and the goalkeeper rooted.

The men, however, were less than impressive in their first competitive outing against Germany since the bilateral series in October.

Harmanpreet Singh, Hardik Singh and Sumit Walmiki were all out with injuries and India had its defence all over the place. The Germans simply outplayed the host. Five wasted PCs did not help the cause of the Indians. The only worthwhile move by the Indian forwards came in the 13th minute and resulted in the team’s lone goal when Rajinder Singh wove past three defenders, passed Abhishek Nain who sent it to Gurjant Singh to deflect in.