India thump Argentina for title

22/10/2001

INDIA upgraded their 1997 silver to gold with a thumping 6-1 win over
Argentina in the final of the Junior World Cup at the Tasmanian Hockey
Centre yesterday.
The pressure of being in a World Cup final was just too much for the
Argentinian boys who struggled to make clean stops and in the second half
the Indian side, made up of six players who have seen action either in the
Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games or the Sydney Olympics, brought them to
their knees.
The Tasmanian Hockey Centre yesterday seated a full capacity crowd of
5,000 and everybody went home satisfied with the standard of play.
For Argentina, reaching the final was reward enough, so after 10 minutes
of feeling sad, they started jumping and dancing with joy just like the
victorious Indian side.
Both sides adopted an attacking game and in the 11th minute, Vikram
Pillay passed to an unmarked Prabhjot Singh who tapped in the lead.
Argentina came back strongly after that but could not penetrate the Indian
25-yard line marshaled by Jugraj Singh and skipper Ajit Singh Gagan.
And before the Argentinians could settle from the early setback, Jugraj
flicked in a penalty corner goal and there were traces that the
Argentinians could be broken but they held on grimly in the first half.
The second half was more balanced and in the 44th minute, Lucas
Cammareri engineered a fightback with a field goal but right after the
restart, India won a penalty corner and Jugraj was on target again.
Argentina never recovered and allowed the Indian strikers, and sometimes
defenders, to run riot.
In the 54th minute, Argentina won a penalty corner but failed to make a
clean stop and an onrushing Ajit sent the ball to the other half and
Prabhjot Singh found himself face-to-face with goalkeeper Joaquin
Berthold.
He beat Berthold with a deft maneouver but instead of scoring, he passed
it to Deepak Thakur who was on the goal line. Thakur stopped the
ball,raised both his hands and celebrated before pushing it in.
Thakur went on to score a hat-trick with two more field goals (55th and
59th), bringing his tally to 10 in the World Cup.
As the final whistle blew the speakers at the Tasmanian Hockey Center,
which were playing English songs during the entire tournament, blasted a
bhangra beat and the Indian players and officials danced with joy.
"We knew that we had to take the game to the Argentinians by attacking
all the time, that way we hardly had to do any defending because the ball
was always in the other half," said Ajit.
India's coach Rajinder Singh believes the third goal by Jugraj won them
the title: "Argentina came back with a 44th minute goal but a minute
later, we snuffed the fire when Jugraj scored."
Indian Hockey Federation president K.P.S. Gill said the entire Junior
squad will join the seniors in training for the Kuala Lumpur World Cup in
Febrary.
"Now that we have shown the world that the Indian stick work style can
still produce results in the modern era, we will be out to prove ourselves
again in Kuala Lumpur. And from the Junior side, maybe seven players will
be drafted into the senior team," said Gill.
Argentine coach Alejandro Verga was as philosophical as ever.
"Sure, the boys were silly to get scared when asked to dance on such a
big stage and I'm angry with them. But if I take a step back and look at
the situation with a clearer head, the boys are heroes because they made
the final when nobody gave us any chance before the start of the
tournament," said Verga.
"The world did not know these boys before the tournament, now everybody
knows that the Argentinians too can play hockey," said Verga.
In the third-fourth placing match, Germany whipped England 5-1.
Fairplay award: Holland (four green cards).
Most promising player of tournament: David Eakins (Ireland).
(END)