India were made to rue their terrible conversion with part of it due to Canada’s strong play at the back alongside some impressive saves by Antoni Kindler to lose 2-3 in the fifth-sixth place match at Hockey World League Semi-finals in London.
With the defeat, India finish sixth in the ten-team tournament with four wins and three losses to their name and an overall disappointing show to lose to teams such as Malaysia and Canada on the day. For Canada, though, it was a reason to rejoice for they qualified for the 2018 World Cup to be played in Bhubaneshwar.
India came from a 1-0 deficit to take the lead and were building numerous chances but were being denied one after another or just unable to bang the board when the opportunities and space did arrive inside the area.
Canada scored against the run of play in the 40th minute when Keegan Pereira found himself unmarked at the far post from a ball spread across the goal and remained calm enough to deflect the ball into the goal. Just four minutes later, Gordon Johnston scored his second of the day after the ball came his way from a rebound with the penalty corner chance saved.
Earlier Canada had taken the lead in just the third minute courtesy Johnston. His well-timed flick found the space between the post and India keeper Vikas Dahiya to take a 1-0 lead. Harmanpreet Singh levelled matters just four minutes later after converting the ball well and then moving it a bit to create room and thundering the ball in the corner of the goal making it difficult to save for the Kindler.
India took the lead in the 22nd minute after wasting multiple penalty corner chances. Once again, Harmanpreet was at the heart of the action to beat the keeper to the right with a low well-placed shot. India played the final three minutes without a keeper and 11 outfield players in attempts of getting an equaliser but Canada defence held firm to celebrate as the hooter blared.
The loss, although, didn’t deter sixth-ranked India’s qualification to the Hockey World League Final, to be held later this year, and the World Cup as they are already assured of places in both the events being the hosts.
