FIH Pro League
\n THE HAGUE
\nThe Indian men\u2019s hockey team lost 3-2 to the Netherlands in the FIH Pro League on Monday, as they once again conceded a late winner, despite a much-improved performance from the 2-1 loss against the same opponents on Saturday.
\nIn that game on Saturday, India had only nine circle entries in the whole match. Here, they had almost as many in the first quarter. The high press was relentless, and it was successful, as India created numerous chances from winning the ball high up the field. In the first half, they missed three such chances, through Abhishek, Shilanand Lakra and Dilpreet Singh.
\nAfter a goalless first quarter, India took the lead early on in the second, thanks to Abhishek\u2019s superb finish. Playing his 100th game for India, he made good use of Shilanand\u2019s fantastic effort to get the ball into the circle, and avoided any confusion with Manpreet Singh in getting to the ball first, and then rifling the ball into the roof of the net to give Maurits Visser no chance in the Dutch goal.
\nHowever, just like in the game on Saturday, the Dutch were back level in no time, and just like in the game on Saturday, it was Thijs van Dam to score the goal. However, this goal was all about Thierry Brinkman and his excellent dribbling down the baseline on the left flank, before his pass lobbbed off an Indian stick into the path of van Dam, who made no mistake with the finish.
\nThe Dutch went ahead early in the second through Tjep Hoedemaekers, who tapped in at the near post, but Krishan Pathak will feel he should\u2019ve done better in saving that one. After that, there was consistent pressure on the Dutch goal from India, who forced five penalty corners in the third quarter, but couldn\u2019t convery any.
\nIt eventually was through a penalty corner that India drew level, as Jugraj Singh\u2019s dragflick deflected off first runner Lars Balk and past Visser into the net.
\nA minute later, India should\u2019ve had the lead, as Lalit Upadhyay raced on to a loose ball and was one-on-one with Visser, but made a desperately poor decision to try and lob the goalkeeper, instead of laying a pass off for Sukhjeet Singh to roll into an empty net, or taking a more high percentage option with his shot.
\nIndia were made to pay for that glaring miss just a minute later, as Jip Janssen\u2019s dragflick beat Suraj Karkera for sheer pace, and gave the Dutch the three points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FIH Pro League THE HAGUE The Indian men\u2019s hockey team lost 3-2 to the Netherlands in the FIH Pro League on Monday, as they once again conceded a late winner, despite a much-improved performance from the 2-1 loss against the same opponents on Saturday. In that game on Saturday, India had only nine circle entries […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483486,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-483470","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n