Indian Express: We did not take our chances in first three quarters, says Roelant Oltmans
India needed to win by a difference of two goals but suffered a 1-0 loss to Malaysia in the final league game.
After India’s 1-0 loss to Malaysia which saw them fail to secure a place in the Sultan Alzan Shah Cup hockey tournament, coach Roelant Oltmans said the he was disappointed with the performance and number of unenforced errors the team made.
“I am never disappointed with result. But today I am very disappointed with the performance. There were too many unforced errors,” said Oltmans. “We did not take our chances in the first three quarters. Then we had to take calculated risks in the last quarter, but we were not able to force goals. We had to take the risks because of the pressure building from the unforced errors.”
Needing a win by two goals difference to qualify for final, India lost and slipped behind Great Britain, who will now play Australia in the final. India will play New Zealand for the third-fourth play-off match.
“We had a few chances to score even in the last stages, but it was disappointing that the Indian team was not able to execute the skills on the field today,” said the coach.
Malaysia scored the only goal of the match through a 50th minute penalty corner coversion by Shahril Saabah. The home team coach Stephen van Huizen said that the team they were playing for pride and needed the win.
“It was a game of playing for our pride at home after losing three games. We did not plan to disappoint India,” said van Huizen. “If Great Britain deserves to go into the final, there’s nothing we can do about it.”