Sports without sportsmanship is human without compassion. Winning and losing matters but not at the cost of honesty. In the modern world of sports where in the name of professionalism and patriotism, players, coaches and adminsitrators often forget these virues. In this bleak scenario, you have one Gabriel Minadeo who shows sportsmanship in abundance and oozes honesty.
The Argentinean coach, by his words and actions, won the heart of the few journalists who chose to cover the World Cup here in Madrid. On the second day, Argetnina won Japan 3-2 in the last match of the day. But he was not happy. He was forthright in his comments. “I don´t consider this a victory. We got three points but for me the coach I lost the match. Its defeat”.
The reason for his rather sombre comments was his team conceding two goals in the last minute of the match. “A match is for 70 minutes. My players should have understood this. We train for seventy minutes game and hence I expect them to play for full 70 minutes”.
Normally in such occasions the coaches tend to show traces of hypocracy, hide the real feelings and come out with usual refrain such as this: ´´Ít happens in modern hockey”. Gabriel might be trying to send a message or a warning to his wards through the press breif, but his forthright approach is appreciated by all.
But this pales against his honest view on a umpiring decision. Japan got a penalty corner hardly 20 seconds remained for the hooter. A goal resulted, but the umpires chose to diallow it. On protest by the Japanese girls, the umpire consulted the other and surprised everyone by awarding another penalty corner. When asked about this, Gabirel said, “No need for the umpire to blow for another penalty corner. It was already a goal”.
Its now time for the umpiring community to understand that everyone wants fair decision and only fair decisions are resected. So far in the two days, three goals have been disallowed in different occasions. Why there is a hesitancy from umpires here in Madrid to use the video provisions? On this score, Monchengladbach scored better.