FIH Pro League: India reverse shoot-out result after Germany hold out for second draw

Bhubaneswar: The India women’s team did repeat its mistake at least in terms of the result of the match as it got the better of Germany in a shoot-out following another 1-1 draw in the FIH Hockey Pro League at the Kalinga Stadium here on Sunday.

The India women put the disappointment of Saturday’s shoot-out defeat behind them to come up with a convincing performance in the shoot-out, winning it 3-0 to take the bonus point in this hard-fought match.

The result means India moved to second position in the league table behind Argentina and ahead of the Netherlands. Germany remain in sixth position just one point behind Spain.

While Sunday’s shoot-out win was a huge performance improvement, head coach Janneke Schopman will be concerned that the team couldn’t make more of their opportunities in the 60 minutes of matchplay.

It was a well-fought match as both India and Germany took to the field for the second match of the double-header aiming to consolidate their position.

Though India dominated possession, made some extremely impressive build-up play, the hosts wasted many chances to score, just like they did in the first match.

Unlike the first match, Germany took the lead against the run of play when Felicia Wiedermann capitalised on a penalty corner routine, just before half-time. The move began with a running injection and ended with the ball flying past young goalkeeper Bichu Devi in the India goal.

Germany too could not capitalise on their chances, making too many errors in the build-up. However, the Indians could not capitalise on this.

India finally equalised through the third quarter when Nisha was on hand to handle the ball over the German goal-line after some indecision by the German defence.

Both teams had further opportunities to wrap the result up. India pushed and pushed for the winning goal but found a resilient German defence that maintained discipline despite an onslaught by the India attack. The Germans managed to keep Sharmila Devi away from the danger zone and also prevented Navneet Kaur from creating chances.

Germany bagged a penalty corner in the dying seconds of the game but were unable to find a way past Savita.

The shoot-out was in total contrast to that in the first match. Seasoned goalkeeper Savita was in brilliant form In the second game, and it was her efforts that India took an unassailable 3-0 lead. In contrast, Salima Tete, Sangita Kumari and Sonika scored for India.

Though India got the bonus point from the second match, coach Janneke Schopman would not be much happy for her experienced team that had performed brilliantly in the Tokyo Olympics, could not get the better of a German team full of their under-21 players with a total caps of 65 before the double-header.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Sambad English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)