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India shows flash of brilliance in
hockey
WSN Bureau
 Mario Almada
struck a golden goal as a spirited India suffered a narrow 1-2
defeat to Argentina in the final of the Azlan Shah hockey tournament
here on Sunday. Sandeep Singh's 10th minute penalty corner
conversion put
India
ahead in the title clash, but veteran Almada led Argentina's
fightback and scored a brace (14th, 73rd) to help his side clinch
the championship.
India
will take the silver medal with pride as they showcased a brilliant
turnaround in the tournament and won four matches in a row after two
defeats to book a berth in the final after a huge gap of 12 years.
The title clash had all the components of a final match as the
keenlycontested and ill-tempered encounter went down to the wire
before being decided through Almada's golden goal in the extra-time.
From the
beginning, both the wingers of Argentina worked overtime to give
some jittery moments to the Indian defenders. But Diwakar Ram and
Sandeep Singh warded off the initial inroads and goalkeeper Adrian
D'Souza came out with some scintillating saves to deny their rivals
any early advantage. In the fourth minute, when umpire Ged Curran of
Scotland awarded a penalty corner to Argentina after Adrian made a
diving ground clearance, the enraged Indians advanced menacingly
towards him. Durran talked to his colleague Amarjit Singh, but at
the end preferred to stick to his decision.
Ignacio Gilardi
took the shot, but
Adrian
saved it with his characteristic calmness. Shivendra Singh and S V
Sunil staged a counterattack in the 10th minute and when they were
brought down near the circle, Amrajit signalled India's first
penalty corner. Sandeep Singh put it across Argentinian goalkeeper
and captain Manuel Vivaldi without much trouble to open the account
for India and score his ninth goal of the tournament.
 But, India could
not hold on to the lead for long. Four minutes later, hard working
right winger Tomas Argento sent in a cross and veteran Mario Almada
netted the equaliser for Argentina. A few minutes before the break,
Argentina came close to take the lead when defender Gilardi's
freehit was tapped by Facundo, but the Indian defence rose to the
occasion and thwarted his attempt. But players of both the teams got
into a scuffle in the melee forcing the umpires to halt the match
for six minutes.
The second half
was relatively incident free with both the sides exercising a degree
of caution. Though the Pan Americans were better in terms of
attacks, Indians also made some inroads. Argentina got an easy
penalty corner five minutes before the hooter, but Gilardi's flick
narrowly missed the target. In the second half,
India
got two short corners in 42nd and 53rd minutes, but Sandeep could
not bring cheers to capacity crowd that supported his team. As the
scores remained tied at 1-1 after the regulation time, the match
went into extra-time where Almada shot home the golden goal to seal
the issue in
Argentina's
favour.
21
May,
2008
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