The Australian Chief Coalch Dr Ric Charlesworth said that the Aussies were flattered by the scoreline of 7-2 after being down 0-2 while talking about the Kookaburras performance after the India – Australia outing in the quarterfinals of the World League Final on Wedneday.
“We are flattered by the scoreline but it is not a fair indicator of the close fight till we bounced back. I am very pleased that we are into the next phase. We have allowed the Indians to go after us in the first 15 minutes. And, yes, I was worried. When you are 2-0 down, you have to work hard to get back. I am glad we did that,’’ he said with a relief.
“It was a messy start but a terrific, solid performance through the middle of the game. Some brilliant hockey was played and anybody who saw that would have been impressed by some of the skills we showcased,’’ he added.
“A lot of goals were so well constructed, it was simply a case of pushing into an empty goal. They were the best chances and you don’t usually get so many of them.’’
Now Australia will play the Netherlands, in a repeat of London Olympic final, in the semifinals. The coach felt that the semis against the Dutch team would be very tough. “We know and expect that,’’ he said.
Centurion Glenn Turner said that he was proud of playing 100 matches for Australia. The Hockey world would not have seen this attacking striker had his rugby-playing father not lost a bet with his hockey-playing neighbor when Glenn was 5 years old. “It is a very proud moment. To be part of such a great sporting team in Australia that’s had so much success and to play 100 games for them is something I never dreamt of.
“India came out hard like we knew they would, especially with the crowd behind them. We just had to stick to our game plan. It’s tough at times when you are down two nil but bit by bit we came back and kept on scoring a few goals,’’ he added.
Simon Orchard, who also entered his name on the scorer’s sheet, said: “I caught fire for five minutes! We knew it would be a battle. We did not expect to go down easily but once we gained control and held on to the ball a bit more the crowd disappeared in the second half. That’s what we tried to do. We talked about sustained attacking pressure which is something that we were not doing at the start,. We were just too end-to-end.’’
ends