Bhubaneswar: India bounced back from their loss at the hands of France to defeat Canada in a strong display of attacking play and clinical finishing on Day 2 of FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup Bhubaneswar 2021.
Despite Canada’s best efforts, India pushed and probed and then exploited the gaps that they created in the Canadian defence.
The scoring opened with a goal from Uttam Singh, who later limped off with an ankle injury. The goals then came in a steady flow, with India keeping the pressure high until the final whistle. Both Sanjay and Player of the Match Hundal Singh scored hat tricks. Canada did rally on the stroke of half-time through a well-taken penalty corner from Chris Tardif but they were chasing shadows for much of the 60 minutes.
Struggling to make himself heard over the excitement following their win, Hundal: “We knew we had to come back and have a good performance today. For the next match [against Poland] it is all about building on this performance.”
Canada’s captain Manveer Jhamat said: “It was an amazing game, unfortunately it was not the result we were after. It was a hard fought game and the guys worked right until the end. We were just unfortunate in the D at either end. For the next game, we will compete in the same way and we will move on from this. For every single game we prepare and we will be fully ready for the next game.”
An astonishing 70 goals were scored on the second day of action at the FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup Bhubaneswar 2021, with Spain setting a new record for goals scored at the event in a single match as the European side put 17 goals past the USA. The previous record was a 13-0 victory for India against Singapore at the 1982 Junior World Cup.
Wins were recorded by Argentina, Netherlands, Spain, France and India, and an incredible display of attacking hockey in all five matches meaning no match saw fewer than eight goals rattling home, with the highest scoring matches seeing 17 goals scored.
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