India beat Canada 3-1 in Azlan Shah Cup 2008 Hockey tournament
May 12
India finally got its act together and came victorious with a 3-1 score against Olympic qualifier Canada at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup 2008 game. The Eight time olympic medallists, who earlier lost 3-4 to New Zealand and 1-5 to Argentina gave a stunning performance to finally win the game against Canada.
Canada had already beaten Belgium in their earlier game and took the lead early on in the match, with Wayne Fernando scoring a penalty corner in the 9th minute. Looking at the first half, it did not look like India was doing any good. Given that the team has suffered a lot these days, as well as top scorer Sandeep Singh benching it out due to an injury on his knee, no one expected much.
Much to the surprise of the Canadians, India came all out in the second half. Diwakar Ram scored at the penalty stroke earned by S.V. Sunil in the 45th minute. Diwakar then converted a penalty corner giving India the lead and finally, Shivendra Singh scored to make the score 3-1 which is where it stayed till the end.
So is India back? Losing 1-5 to Argentina does put things into perspective, but this win might just give India the morale boost it needs. What do you think?
Stumble it!
May 12 at 05:56
Now that we know there was a problem, at least we can fix it. India just needs some time to heal. If it cannot win this cup, its fine. There’s always next year.
May 12 at 07:02
I don’t think India will win this year’s Azlan Shah cup. But given that hocket has received a lot of bad press lately, the team is definitely going to get in form by early next year.
May 12 at 07:11
I remember the glory days of Indian Hockey. Where we would be proud to have such an amazing team. I hope we can relive those days in the near future. We should be able to find a few strong men in a country of 1 billion people.
May 12 at 14:44
I hope Indian hockey can get back in shape by the end of this year. Nice to see them shaking off that bad press so soon at the Azlan cup!
May 12 at 19:25
Nice to see India is back in action.
May 13 at 00:39
this is fantastic news really and hey thanx for your comment on my blog, I liked your blog too especially the design. Have fun and do keep in touch
May 13 at 03:53
Thanks for the comments guys. We too hope for India to be able to hold its head up high when it comes to sports. Why does a country of 1 billion people lag so far behind in sports? Thank god we at least have our cricket thing going on.