MADRID, 9 March 2004 — India injected new life in their campaign to qualify for Athens with an impressive 2-0 victory over New Zealand here at the Club de Campo yesterday.
While India won, Pakistan threw away a perfect chance to seal an automatic berth in this summer’s Olympic Games when they were held to a 0-0 draw by Malaysia.
For Pakistan it all boiled down to how many goals Sohail Abbas scores and against Malaysia the short corner specialist faltered and that reflected on the scoreline. The greenshirts gave their worst show in the competition after an impressive performance in their initial three games.
“Its always better to take your first chance but we didn’t do that today,” commented Pakistan coach Roelant Oltmans. “We made mistakes that we didn’t make in the previous games and I’ll be talking to the boys about that,” added the Dutchman.
But Oltmans gave credit to the Malaysians for the surprising draw. “They were very well structured in the defense and didn’t give us many opportunities.”
Malaysia’s German coach Paul Lissek was visibly pleased with his team’s excellent showing. “They really played well today. We needed a point from this game and we managed to do it.”
The draw brought Malaysia back into contention for a place in the Athens Games but threw open the race for two automatic berths from Pool B. Pakistan will have to beat or draw against New Zealand today to confirm a semifinal berth while India will need to beat Canada and then hope New Zealand don’t win against Pakistan by a big margin.
Despite the draw, the Pakistanis, appear in a strong position with ten points and a much better goal difference than top rivals India and New Zealand who both have seven points but any further upset result like the drawn tie against Malaysian can make their task of qualifying for Athens a little bit less easy.
Malaysia, on the other hand, got a new lease of life from the vital point that they snatched from the tough tie against Pakistan. They now have four points and will just need to draw against Belgium to finish fourth in Pool B and qualify for the 5-7 playoffs.
Giving an improved performance in attack and defense India punctured the unbeaten Kiwis bubble in what was a key Pool B game for them. Both India and New Zealand now have seven points each from four games.
India play Canada and New Zealand face the in-form Pakistan in their last group match.
For the first time in the competition India looked in command as to repeatedly throw the tight Kiwi defense awry while showing the ability to soak up the pressure.
“It was a very tough game,” said Indian coach Rajinder Singh. “My forwards were never allowed much room and our defense was always under a lot of threat but in the end the result was a very good one for us.”
Indian goalie Davesh Chauhan was in his element as he made a series of saves to play an important role in the victory. They took the lead early in the game when Arjun Halappa caught the New Zealand defense by surprise with his speed and scored in the second minute. Deepak Thakur twice came close but the Kiwis held on.
New Zealand had their first shot on goal in the 12th minute but Phillip Burrows’ attempt was stopped by Chauhan. The Kiwis created a number of moves but failed in their efforts. New Zealand forced four short corners in the second session but could not beat the agile Chauhan. Deepak Thakur then scored three minutes from the hooter to end all Kiwi hopes of a comeback in the match.
Belgium, the most defense-oriented side in the competition, worked hard for their third draw in four games to stay in the hunt for an Athens berth. But another failed effort to win their first match in the tournament means that Canada are almost out of the race as they have just one point.
The Belgians trailed by a goal against the desperate Canadians but a 49th minute strike from Mike Dewever helped them to a 2-2 draw. With two more similar results against India and New Zealand in their previous outings, Belgium have three points with one more game left against Malaysia.
Belgium took a 1-0 lead through a Jean-Phillipe Brule penalty-corner strike in the 24th minute but Canada responded with two goals in three minutes to end the first session with a 2-1 advantage.
Canada scored the equalizer through Sean Campbell in the 30th minute and then skipper Rob Short got his team’s second goal off a penalty stroke three minutes before halftime. Belgium, switched to a more attacking mode in the second half and managed to make it 2-2 through Dewever.
