New Zealand chalked up a 3-1 win over India which thus slid to its second defeat in as many matches in the Olympic men\u2019s hockey competition here on Wednesday, says a report in The Hindu, adding that India, after a sensational start when Sandeep Singh converted a second minute penalty corner, faded away as the Kiwis came back strongly with goals by Andrew Hayward (13th), Phillip Burrows (24th) and Nicolas Wilson (29th), and then nursed the lead to the end.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very disappointing performance by the Indians who just did not have the pace or power to overwhelm the Kiwis. Rather, age-old errors seemed to creep into India\u2019s game with badly positioned forwards inside the striking circle, over-dribbling and lack of variety in their attacks,\u201d says the report, adding that in the deep defence, too, the Indians looked a step slower than the Kiwis and, more often than not, struggled to get the ball away from the danger zone. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo much so that for the second-half coach Michael Nobbs replaced captain and goalkeeper Bharat Chetri with Sreejesh, who justified the substitution with a couple of good saves,\u201d says the report.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
A report in The DNA <\/strong>says that India’s semi-final hopes in Olympic Games men’s hockey competition were dealt a severe blow when the side slumped to a humiliating 1-3 defeat against New Zealand here Wednesday.<\/p>\n Defensive lapses led to the Bharat Chetri-led side’s second successive loss in Group B, having opened their campaign on Monday with a 2-3 defeat against formidable the Netherlands. The second straight loss in the tough six-team pool has put their campaign off the track and the team will now have a tough task to make the last four stage.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s disappointing to start with two losses, but that does not mean we have nothing to play for,\u201d Chetri said after the match. \u201cWe have to be mentally tough and try to play the remaining three pool matches well,\u201d Chetri said, according to a report in The Deccan Herald. <\/strong><\/p>\n India coach Michael Nobbs said his players played the second half well in both matches so far. <\/p>\n \u201cWe seem to be playing only in the second half. I simply cannot figure out why the boys are not going out and playing their game from the beginning,\u201d Nobbs said. \u201cAn early goal should have made a change and we tried to take advantage of it, but New Zealand pressed hard and pinned us down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New Zealand chalked up a 3-1 win over India which thus slid to its second defeat in as many matches in the Olympic men\u2019s hockey competition here on Wednesday, says a report in The Hindu, adding that India, after a sensational start when Sandeep Singh converted a second minute penalty corner, faded away as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[6007,280,6008,5997,771],"class_list":["post-8930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-from-the-newspapers","tag-andrew-hayward","tag-london-olympics","tag-phillip-burrows","tag-sandeep-singh"],"yoast_head":"\n