Times of India: Argentina coach Carlos Retegui unhappy with HWL Final scheduling

Feroz Khan

BHUBANESWAR: Argentina might have battled past India and inclement weather in the semi-final of the Hockey World League Final on Friday but the team is unhappy with the scheduling and the ‘unfair’ format of the tournament.
Speaking after the match, coach Carlos Retegui said they were told about their semi-final schedule on Thursday night hours after they had beaten England in the quarterfinals and hinted they are going to take up the issue with International Hockey Federation (FIH).

“We are thinking about FIH at the moment. It is incredible that at the end of the day we don’t know when do we play, whom we play [in the semis] and at what time. We got to know at 10 pm yesterday that we are playing India. After our last match against Spain [in the league stage], we didn’t know when we play next or who we face next. We were told about it after all the matches finished,” he said.

He also said India were in a much better state to play the semi-finals owing to an extra day’s rest. “Day of rests are not the same for every team. India got more time to rest than us and were in better condition. We played yesterday and India had more time than us [to recover].”

“We don’t know why the two semi-finals weren’t played on the same day,” he added.

When asked if the conditions were playable today, “There was water on the pitch, not easy for the players. But it was a good match. Can’t do anything about it [rain].”

He said despite the adverse conditions, his team was ready to play on Friday and wouldn’t have preferred their semi-final clash against India to be postponed.

He also slammed the format of HWL Final saying calling it unfair. ” This type of a tournament is not fair. A team can top the league stage but if they lose in the quarters, then they will be out of medal contention,” he said.