US women’s field hockey tops India, could top pool

One key difference: field hockey players must shoot right-handed.

United States’ Lauren Crandall, right, fights for the ball with India’s Namita Toppo during a women’s field hockey match at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016. At the Games so far, they have scored 21 goals in the five group stage matches while conceded just two. He wanted India to qualify for the quarters, which was the first goal.

Once again, the USA was deadly on corner attacks, creating an opportunity only 15 seconds into the match before Melissa Gonzalez jump-started the team with its first goal seven seconds later. Anita McLaren’s penalty corner shot hit the post. The viewership rose to 15.4 million viewers in the next hour as Indian tennis players like Leander Paes, Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza kicked off with their first matches in the tournament.

Barely 90 seconds after the 10-minute break, Sreejesh’s clearance off a counter-attack saw the ball rising to unsafe height, earning the Netherlands their first penalty corner.

Then, James Coughlan went on a mazy run up the middle to the circle where he fed an unmarked Nick Wilson to blast in.

Belgium, who topped Pool A, were thrashed 1-3 by New Zealand later on Friday.

A victory here will take India to the semi-final at the Olympics for the first time since 1972 at Munich, even though they won the gold medal at Moscow in 1980, but that was a six nation round robin format where the two top teams, India and Spain, played the direct final.

“We need to keep in our head to keep playing hockey and not be chickens”, Netherlands midfielder Lidewij Welten said.

Meanwhile, in the other quarter-finals of men’s hockey, Netherlands will face Australia, Spain will play Argentina and Germany will be up against New Zealand. They were shut out 7-0 to the Netherlands, and lost 4-2 to Ireland. Akashdeep Singh made it 1-0 for India after scoring on a penalty corner rebound.

In the must-win game for both the teams, Argentina sealed the match in the second quarter which yielded them five goals in a mesmerising display of attacking hockey.

Bombayla and Deepika advanced into the 1/8 Eliminations round of the women’s individual archery competion while Manoj stunned 2012 London Olympics bronze medallist Evaldas Petrauskas of Lithuania by a split decision in the Round of 32 of the men’s Light Welterweight (64kg) category here on Wednesday.

The Netherlands go from one old Olympic rivalry to likely another, against top-ranked Australia, and leading 6-5 overall.

The Americans, however, could not score a single goal from the penalty corner.

They were also lasting longer than the British, who were beaten semifinalists at their home Olympics four years ago, and heading for the exit.

“Really important game for us tonight”, USA coach Craig Parnham, who was hired in 2013 after the team’s 12th-place finish in London, told the AP.

The forwardline too needs to pull up their socks, while the defence, led by Sreejesh, so far has played well but they need to raise their game to the highest level if they want to stop the marauding Belgium forwards.

In the 40th minute, India earned a penalty corner but failed to make it count. We heard that there are many viewing parties when the games are on, and that’s just wonderful.

Already assured of a place in the quarter-finals, world No 5 India played an attacking game but had to wait for 33 minutes to break the deadlock.