Our performance to date is not acceptable: Nobbs

London, 6 August: National coach Michael Nobbs is deeply hurt by
Indian hockey team’s performance in the Olympics so far and has termed
it as ‘unacceptable’

He is surprised at the sudden slump in the form of the players who did
so well only three weeks back during their European tour.

The coach was candid enough to admit that people back in India are
feeling let down and said they have every reason for that.

‘Where do we go from here, I of course am completely disappointed as
we showed so much promise as we played during the past 12 months.
Preparations and team building were going according to schedule and
our results had showed we were improving. What is going wrong.’ He
said

‘The same things that we all knew lack of finishing in front of goals
and leaking easy defensive goals have proved to be costly. Maybe we
were hoping it would all be alright on the night. Well this is the
Olympic Games and this is where as an athlete you get the chance to
show that you deserve to be here and establish yourself as an
Olympian.’

‘Well we can all see that it is not all right and the things we have
been concerned with have been our downfall. Our forwards have had
ample opportunity to score with 30-40 penetrations into the opposition
circle per game .Many shots going begging across the front of goals
and our once feared penalty corner battery reduced to a mere whimper
with shots barely making the goal line.’

‘We still have two games to play to try and salvage something, this is
the last chance for a number of players to stand up and be counted and
produce the performances we all hoped they would.’

Its important for our players not to lose faith in themselves and as a
team as this is a tough time for the team but its certainly not the
end of the road.

‘The next game will be against Belgium and they are no walkovers and
are in a similar position as ourselves. They are a physically tough
side with some skillful players and from watching their games they
play with the pride of a nation so they will be a tough team to crack.
Can we finally stand up and be counted well we better, our performance
to date is not acceptable.’

Courtesy: Harpal Singh Bedi, IOA Media