Terry Walsh satisfied with India's performance

The Indian hockey team performed well to hold Olympic champions Germany to a 3-3 draw at the Major Dhyan Chand National stadium yesterday. Chief coach Terry Walsh was pleased with the way the players had performed against a much better opponent.

India moved on from the horror start which included two defeats against England (0-2) and New Zealand (1-3) in the opening two matches to produce a worthy performance and restrict the world champions to a draw.

“We did several things better today. We were trying to improve in different areas. We played better against a quality opponent like Germany. I think the opponents didn’t play that well today,” Walsh said at the post-match press conference.

“We were fighting to give us an opportunity to play against Argentina which didn’t materialize. We played with much more authority and quality. The defence was very well organised,” he added.

India were close to completing a major upset, when in the dying stages of the match, they conceded the third goal courtesy of a defensive error which captain Sardar Singh admitted was solely his mistake.

“I accept it was my mistake. I was in two minds. First, I thought I will clear the ball but later realising that there was no one near me, I thought of just stopping the ball but I missed it,” he said.

The German team didn’t play to their strengths as per German national coach Markus Weise

“We had an awful game. We made plenty of technical errors in the first half.”

He went on to praise the performance from India, especially after losing the opening two games of the tournament.

“India put in a lot of effort. They did a good job. They played hard game and deserve at least a draw,” he said.