FIH Men’s Junior World Cup
Chennai, Dec 8: India’s dream of reclaiming the FIH Men’s Junior World Cup after a hiatus of nine years went up in smoke as they lost 1-5 to seven-time champions and title holders Germany in the semifinal here on Sunday.
The Indians had last won the Junior World Cup in 2016 in Lucknow.
The ruthless Germans scored through Lukas Kossel (14th, 30th minutes), Titus Wex (15th), Jonas von Gersum (40th) and Ben Hasbach (49th).
India pulled one back in the 51st minute through a penalty-corner conversion by Anmol Ekka.
India will now play Argentina for the bronze medal on Wednesday, while Germany will take on Spain in the final.
Spain had earlier defeated Argentina 2-1 in the first semifinal.
India’s chief coach PR Sreejesh feels his side failed to execute its plans and committed silly mistakes, which cost it dearly against seven-time champions.
“We didn’t play well, that’s it. We gave them easy opportunities, silly mistakes, conceded goals and it is quite hard for these guys after conceding easy goals in a Junior World Cup semifinal.
“We did have our plans for Germany and if you fail to execute that then definitely it is going to be an easy walk for them (opponents). We couldn’t manage to execute our plans,” a disappointed Sreejesh said after the match.
“Winning and losing matters a lot, it doesn’t matter if you lose 1-0 or 10-0, it’s the same but the problem is how we concede the goals. We need to focus on that first.
“It’s all about collective effort. You need to defend well first and then you need to attack and create opportunities. We are not converting our opportunities and we are giving them easy opportunities to score and that makes the difference,” he added.
The two-time Olympic medallist goalkeeper said there is no scope for committing mistakes in such a high-pressure game.
“We can’t commit easy, silly mistakes. You can’t give them space and that’s really important. I told my players that they shouldn’t allow the opponents to get into the centre but they allowed and the Germans were able to create opportunities. That’s the one area I really felt bad about,” Sreejesh said.
“Mentality matters because it’s the semifinals and when you are conceding goals and making silly mistakes that puts you under pressure.
“I just want my players to play our game, we can’t copy-paste. We Indians have our own flavour, and we just need to play our game. When you are playing their game it’s quite easy for them to match up but if we play our game, it is going to be hard for them to match us. We forgot that,” he added.
Sreejesh, however, hoped India will win a medal in the tournament.
“There is one more match left which can help you to win at least one medal and that is really important other than crying about today’s match. That’s what I can tell them because going back empty-handed is more painful,” he concluded. (PTI)
