CWG women’s hockey: India set 14-goal target against Trinidad & Tobago
By IANSFriday, October 8, 2010
NEW DELHI - India fell short of their target of 14 goals against Trinidad and Tobago Friday and this could impact their medal chances in the womens hockey at the Commonwealth Games, team coach Sandeep Somesh said.
At the start of the game today, we had a certain target and that was 14 goals, but we only managed seven and this could hurt us, he said after Indias 7-0 win against the minnows from the Caribbeans.
The women play South Africa Saturday in the last league match and have to beat them by a big margin for a place in the medal round on the basis of goal difference.
Somesh was looking at the possibility of a tie with South Africa on points should India win the game against them Saturday, and hence it was imperative that India boost the goal difference.
The South Africans beat Trinidad and Tobago 12-0. This scoreline could well make the difference in the end, observed Somesh.
We kept on creating and missing chances, the coach said, and referred to the 11 penalty corners that were awarded, of which only three yielded goals.
Unfortunately, we do not have a penalty corner specialist and hence have to go for variations, but even then, our finishing was not good,” he noted.
We go into the game against South Africa knowing that we had beaten them (4-3) at the World Cup (for 9-10 placings), but again, the goal-difference could come into play, Somesh said.
India skipper Surinder Kaur, who notched four goals Friday, agreed. We had beaten South Africa in the World Cup, but we needed to score more goals today, but didnt. We had plenty of chances, but our finishing was not up to the mark.
Meanwhile, Trinidad and Tobago coach Anthony Marcano said that his team, despite losing all the four matches in the league and now having to play for the 9-10 positions, learnt a lot from its outings.
But more important is for the girls when they go back home to implement what they have learnt here. Our target of course is to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics, he said.
