We conceded too many soft goals’

NEW DELHI: The coach of the Indian junior hockey team, Ajay Kumar Bansal, thinks his side’s habit of conceding soft goals dampened its performance in the recently concluded Australian Youth Olympic Festival 2009 in Sydney.

Bansal’s boys returned with a silver medal from the four-nation event after losing 1-2 to host Australia in the final. The coach feels the team could have fared better.

“We played well throughout the tournament. Even in the final we dominated for 80 per cent of the time. But we gave away too many soft goals,” Bansal told The Hindu after landing here from Sydney early on Tuesday morning.

Pulsating final

According to Bansal, the title clash was a pulsating one and the Australian goalkeeper Garner Scott prevented India from walking away with the top honour. “The final was between India and the Australian goalie. He was too good and stopped so many attempts,” he said.

“We beat them 2-1 in the round-robin stage. And the margin in the final was not a big one. But the golden goal should not have happened.

“That was an excellent goal off a midfield lapse. It stunned everybody including the Aussies,” Bansal said.

The coach felt that the 5-5 draw against Malaysia in the round-robin stage was not a pleasant result either.

“After two wins (including the 6-1 victory against Great Britain), we had qualified for the final. So we planned to rest some of our key players like Diwakar Ram, Pramod Kumar and Mandeep Antil.

“The boys relaxed a bit which allowed the Malaysians to pump in five goals. Later, fielding Diwakar saved us from humiliation,” Bansal said.

Build-up phase

Bansal said in future he would caution the players against conceding soft goals. “This is the build-up phase before the Junior World Cup in June. So we have enough time to rectify our mistakes.”

The players will take a break before re-assembling in mid-February for a camp.

National championship

Meanwhile, the National hockey championship will be held at Pune from March 2 to 15, the ad hoc committee of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) announced here on Tuesday after sorting out the differences among some key members of the panel.