India suffered a humiliating 1-7 thrashing at the hands of Germany to end their pool engagements on a disappointing note in the women’s competition of the FIH World league Round 3 here on Sunday.
The fitter and faster Germans completely dominated the match with the Indians left to defend their citadel in their own half for most part of their last Pool B match. The Indian backline had a busy day in office as they had to defend the rampaging Germans who combined well and changed flanks in great pace to unsettle their opponents.
Janne Muller-Wieland (14th), Maike Stockel (22nd and 44th), Marie Mavers (35th), Jennifer Plass (49th), lydia Haase (54th) and Hannah Kruger (67th) scored for Germany. Vandana Katariya scored the lone goal for India in the 43rd minute. Fifth-ranked Germany got five penalty corners from which they converted two. India, ranked 12th, got two penalty corners which they could not convert to any goal.
With this loss, their second in the group stage, India ended the pool phase with one point which they earned from their 1-1 draw against Belgium. Germany topped Pool B with nine points with an all-win record.
The Ritu Rani-led side are likely to play against Pool A topper or runners-up in the knock-out phase which begins on Tuesday. All the eight teams — four each in the two pools — will still play in the quarterfinal phase as the preliminary matches are only meant to decide who plays whom in the knock-out stage.
The last-place team of one pool plays the topper of the other pool and so on.
Men face Kiwis
A mediocre India will have to plug in the loopholes in defence as well as improve their finishing as they take on New Zealand in their last group match on Monday. A win against New Zealand will no doubt be a confidence booster for Michael Nobbs’ boys ahead of the quarterfinals. Before the Netherlands test, India were held to a 4-4 draw by lower-ranked Ireland.
Considered a perennial problem, the defence hurt India against the Irish. They looked a shade better against world number 3, the Netherlands, but the strikers let them down against the current Olympic silver medallists.
Against the Netherlands, they struggled to come to terms with the speed of the Dutch players. The Indians did grow in confidence as the match progressed, but luck did not smile on them. To add to that, the strikers’ lack of discretion upfront also did not help India’s cause.