FIH Pro League | Men continue to climb up the table, women lose again to slip to bottom

Men continue to climb up the table, women lose again to slip to bottom

The Indian men continued their gradual climb up the cable with a 2-1 win against Ireland in the FIH Pro League on Friday even as the women continued their losing streak, going down 4-0 to Germany at the Kalinga Stadium.

The contest was closer than the difference in rankings would suggest, Ireland playing positive, attacking hockey from the start and forcing India to constantly regroup and find ways around the Irish play. They also went ahead early, Matthew Nelson feeding Jeremy Duncan right in front of the goal and the latter slotting home in the 8th minute.

The setback seemed to wake up India from its slumber. There was an urgency to its attack and it paid off in the 22nd minute.

Rajinder, consistently among the most impressive of players so far, stole the ball and passed on to Jarmanpreet on the sideline, who found Abhishek Nain inside. Mandeep Singh, receiving the ball from almost 35 yards out, run up inside and slammed home, all in one quick motion, to level scores.

India scored two more, through PC rebounds, and had several more chances but for Jamie Carr in the goal. Luke Roleston, replacing him in the final quarter, was equally impressive. To their credit, the Irish kept pressing hard while maintaining a stubborn defence but were unable to break the Indian structure.

The women’s woes continued, suffering their fourth loss, handing Germany its first win in seven games of the competition and slipping to bottom place on the table. The Indians were completely outplayed in every department for most of the game, only managing to hold their own and show some fight in the 3rd quarter that elicited two PCs, both wasted.

For the rest, specially the first 30 minutes, the Indians managed to reach the German circle a grand total of two times, running around clueless and constantly conceding space and possession to a team that is in a rebuilding phase after the Olympics.