Hockey eves' suffer successive defeat

India's hope of watching a hockey team playing in Beijing Olympics got a major setback on Tuesday when Indian women’s hockey team crashed to a 2-3 defeat against Belgium in the qualifiers.

The hockey eves’ dream of earning an Olympic berth virtually came to an end after they tasted their successive defeat despite missing out at least 10 penalty corners and several scoring chances.

•   E-mail Article
•   Printer Friendly
•   Text-Size    

India has now a very slender chance of making it into the finals as it depends on different permutations and combinations. With only three points, India will have to beat formidable United States, who has 9 points from three matches, on Thursday.

The victory against US will not be enough as they will also have to beat France on Saturday and moreover they have to wait for the sympathetic results of the other teams in the group.

India had disastrous start against Belgium as they were stunned by a goal inside the 30 seconds of the push. Chrlotte de Vos gave opening jolt to the Indian side before both the teams could settle down.

Surprised by an early goal Indian players got their act together and scored twice in the first half through Suman Bala (13th) and Ritu Rani (16th) to surge ahead.

However, Indian girls, who were too fast and supple in comparison to their rivals, messed things up later as they conceded two easy goals in the space of 10 minutes to be beaten in a match that they could have won easily.

Astrid Vervaet found the net in the 47th minute while Gaelle Valcke scored a brilliant field goal in the 58th minute to give Indian supporters a setback.