Sun 16 Jan, 2005
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France hold India to win hockey series  x10
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| India |
December 28, 2004 
Rediff.com
> Page Views 1086
India blew away a three-goal advantage as France rallied to force a 3-3 draw in the second and final hockey Test match in New Delhi on Tuesday.
The French team had won the first match 3-1 on Monday.
The eight-time Olympic winners had themselves to blame for wasting the golden opportunity to level the series and salvage some pride which was severely dented following the loss in the first match.
They simply could not maintain the 3-0 lead they had taken by the 38th minute and wilted under pressure towards the close of the match.
The home side showed some good attacking skills in the first half, but could hardly do anything to stop the rampaging Frenchmen after the break.
Freddric Soyez emerged the hero for the visitors with a hat-trick of goals (42nd minute, 60th, 63rd), all of which came from penalty corners.
Earlier, Arjun Halappa scored twice (11th and 26th) as India went to the half time with a 2-0 lead. Tushar Khandekar's strike three minutes into the second half further swelled India's lead.
But that was all the home side could do as they watched helplessly with the visitors slamming home at regular intervals to draw level. India also missed the services of vetrean goalkeeper Devesh Chauhan who did not take the field as he was indisposed.
Rookie goalkeepers Kutappa and Shrijesh, who manned the post towards the end, could not do anything to stop Soyez from sounding the board from set-pieces.
The crowd at the Shivaji Stadium, that was aghast to see India crashing against France yesterday, surprisingly cheered for the visitors when they were going great guns in the second half.
India earned three penalty corners in the match but failed to make full use of these in the absence of Sandeep Singh, the only drag-flicker in the side.
"We played some attacking game early on but failed to maintain the lead. We played much better than yesterday, but I would have been happy to see the side win," Indian coach Jagbir Singh said.
The match brought an end to France's successful 15-day trip of India during which they won five matches in all -- two against local clubs in Mumbai and two U-21 matches in Hyderabad besides the victory against India yesterday. They lost only one match -- against Indian Airlines here last week.
"It was great series and will help our players a lot. We could not have asked for a better outing," France coach Reynard Bertrand said after the match.
Scores:
India - 3 (Arjun Halappa 11th minute, 26th; Tushar Khandekar 38th)
France - 3 (Freddric Soyez 42nd, 60th, 63rd).
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Comments on this article
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Who Cares?
12-28-2004 2:12 pm
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With people at helm I think it is a good result actually I was wishing India will lose this test too. You know it is a Test ony Finals are far away.I think we should play other Minnows in world and lose to most of countries that will encourge yong contries that they beat Eight time Olympic Champion and will increase the poularity of sport in those contries and in Fact Indian Govt Should send its officials to other Hockey Powers and Give a lesson of ineptness and How to Destroy a Team so then those countries should learn about Poltics in Sports and increse their level of corruption in Sports Pretty soon every body will be at our standard and actually should award country with most loses with Wood Medal and Pretty sonn we will be calling our selves 20 Time Wooden MedalistSuper Power India did a shameful act of winning against BanglaDesh.We are ashamed that they could not lose BanglaDesh and Nepals it is proud moment for us today with playing so shabilly we lost to France WE can be a bad Host. Another milestone in Great achievements of IHF also known as GHF (Gill Hockey Federation)
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Yan Huckendubler
12-29-2004 9:31 am
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Not a surprise
The good results of the French Team in India, and their impressive win in the Test Series (win 3-1 and draw 3-3 after been down 0-3!) are only a surprise to the Indian media and fans: the French have a young team that played well at the 2001 Junior World Cup, they were very impressive at the 2003 Indoor World Cup (3rd) and are not far behind the top European hockey nations.
Frédéric Soyez is not exactly unknown either: he was the top scorer and was named Player of the Tournament at this Indoor World Cup. His show in the Bronze Medal game when he scored 6 of the 8 French goals was spectacular!
The French Team currently suffers from the density of European hockey. They were just one rank behind the last team invited at the Olympic Qualifier in Madrid (even though they finished above two of the invitees Belgium and Poland at the European Championships just before
). When they finally crack the invitation list for major tournaments, they could quickly climb in the World Rankings. Most teams in the 10-18 bracket are within their reach.
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kk
12-29-2004 5:41 pm
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Indian Hockey team
Again last minute goals by opponents with better stamina! India needs players with better stamina(many other deficiencies to correct too!). Needs to call back Prabhjoth and Jagan, if not Dhanraj or Dhillon
KK
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Tiger
12-29-2004 11:48 pm
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Hurray
where is reality, Mr sing and other who were so proud of indian team. now again look at the reality. great job done by france. they deserve to win but what about india. Indian deserve to loose every thing. waiting for that moment when India would be divided in to so many parts just like its hockey team. no coach could do a good job for the indian team which is full stupid people. even charls worth can't do any thing. try him also. no decipline, no faith, no spirit, no fighting qualities in indian team. they should better start selling fruits in the streets. indian cricket team lost to B.D hockey team lost to france. Hurray, what a proud moment for india. FACE THE TRUTH, SEE THE FACTS, IF NOT THEN DON'T GIVE COMMENTS
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vinay
12-30-2004 8:15 am
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i play hockey and grew up in shivaji stadium delhi.After a long time i saw the indian team playing very good but only in the before interval,also in when they scored third goal with tusar khandiker but then i think they started acting like heroes and played without resposibility.They should keep the same style as they were playing good luck indian hockey,i luv u
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Alamsher K.Wazir
12-30-2004 11:13 am
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Indian & Pakistani hockey teams
Pathetic,is probably a mild description. Spain, no one had heard of few years back, is now on the top of the chart. Close to one billion population of india & 150 millions in
Pakistan, both countries failed to win a single gold medal in last Olympics. Lookt at
China with same population winning scores of medals. There has to be something inherently wrong with the athletes of subcontinents. France beating India, how bad the
situation can get ?
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hindustan murdabad
01-02-2005 2:27 pm
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yes i think it would be better if india split into smaller countries as each state would benefit in sports.
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Wajid Jawaid
01-03-2005 7:35 am
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surprised
well i was away for a few days. came today and read this news.. Thats shocking.. india shouldnt be losing to teams like france... i really hope that some drastic changes are made in india's hockey, otherwise its gonna slide further down
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evan
01-03-2005 4:00 pm
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Anybody know what the French strategy for getting their team ramped up so quickly- nobody really heard of them untill the indoor cup
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KUCHNAI
01-13-2005 8:32 am
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france
France programme has been going for a long time...domestic league is ok , theyve had quite a few stars such as Pillay play for cash there.Their problem has always been the number of active players-they have had a couple of class players like Jaquet but the rest are fillers.
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