The Hindu: India will look to stay unbeaten; Spain beats New Zealand

By Uthra Ganesan

With nine goals in two games so far, India will hope to enter the business end of the Junior World Cup with an all-win record when it takes on South Africa in its final Pool D match here on Monday.

India is all but assured of a quarterfinal spot unless it suffers a huge defeat, which on current form looks unlikely. The match provides a chance for India to get disciplined with both coach Harendra Singh and Roelant Oltmans accepting that the team suffered for over-excitement in both games so far.

The results have papered over the cracks but the team knows they are there. The defence has been shaky and a tad slow falling back after an attack. Fouls and suspensions at crucial moments are a concern. Against England, Mandeep Singh picked up a yellow card and his absence saw the opposition score twice in five minutes.

Oltmans was blunt in his assessment when he said, “we got a few unnecessary cards and gave away two goals in the last 10 minutes. The tackles were half down on the pitch and it occurred because of over-excitement.” Harendra was more sympathetic. “They are playing a World Cup and you have to accept that there will be anxiety,” he said.

On the positive side, the team’s structure and movement improved significantly after the first game. The drag-flicking duo of defenders Harmanpreet Singh and Varun Kumar have gelled well in both departments, while Armaan Qureshi, Gurjant Singh and Neelkanta Sharma have kept the feeding lines open.

Mandeep Singh and Parvinder Singh have been impressive upfront, both in terms of shots on goal and earning penalty corners. Amidst all this, captain Harjeet Singh remains the beating heart of the team.

Both England and South Africa have three points and a draw would be enough for the host to retain the top spot.

A win would propel India to the top of Pool D, taking on Pool C’s second-placed Spain in the quarterfinals after the latter pushed New Zealand out of contention on goal difference despite a 3-3 draw.

The results: Pool C: Germany 6 (Anton Boeckel 2, Constantin Staib, Ole Thies Prinz, Timm Herzbruch, Lukas Windfeder) bt Japan 1 (Ryo Ozawa); Spain (Llorenc Grau Piera, Enrique Gonzalez, Jan Rosell) drew with New Zealand 3 (Sam Hiha, Jonty Keaney, Dylan Thomas).

Pool B: Belgium 3 (Thomas Verheijen, Quentin van Lierde, Henri Raes) bt the Netherlands 2 (Terrance Pieters, Bram van Groessen); Malaysia 2 (Zulhamizan Mohamad, Khaliq Hamirin) bt Egypt 0.

Monday’s schedule: Pool A: Australia vs Austria (10 a.m.), Korea vs Argentina (12 noon). Pool B: The Netherlands vs Egypt (2 p.m.), Malaysia vs Belgium (4 p.m.). Pool D: India vs South Africa (6 p.m.).