Australia whip India to take men's hockey title
Australia crushed a hapless Indian squad to win the 2010 Commonwealth Games men's hockey tournament at the Maj Dhyan Chand Stadium in New Delhi on Thursday.
Luke Doerner and Jason Wilson scored two goals each as the Australians claimed their fourth-straight title in the quadrennial meet.
The match was actually close in the early stages with both squads fighting for control of the ball. Wilson finally broke the scoreless deadlock in the 19th minute when he fired home from the left side
of the box.
The Australians made it 2-0 two minutes later, this time through Chris Ciriello. Wilson scored his second goal moments later before Doerner made it 4-0 shortly before half-time.
Doerner, the tournament's leading scorer, scored his second goal in the 52nd minute. Simon Orchard added a goal for the Australians before skipper Jamie Dwyer and Glenn Turner joined the scoring spree
to complete their domination of the hosts.
The Indians were hardly a threat to the Australians' defence. They managed to force two penalty corners but Shivendra Singh and Sandeep Singh both misfired.
Australia coach Ric Charlesworth said the sweltering heat may have taken its toll on the Indians.
"I think their Spanish coach (Jose Brasa) has made a difference. Maybe they wanted favourable conditions but were affected by the heat. They played night games the whole time and found the heat challenging,"
said Charlesworth, who was once hired by the Indian Hockey Federation to help improve its development programme.
Brasa admitted that his squad really struggled against the Australians.
"Australia are the best side in the world... They have an excellent domestic circuit and league, something we should have in India," he said.
Meanwhile, New Zealand beat England on penalties to win the bronze medal. The match went into a deciding shoot-out after England scored two late goals to tie the scores at 3-3.
Dean Couzins, Nick Haig and Hayden Shaw scored goals to put New Zealand in a commanding position. The Kiwis seemed to be headed for an easy win after building a 3-1 lead with 16 minutes remaining.
But Simon Mantell scored two quick goals to force the match into extra time. Both sides had scoring chances in the extra period but neither team converted.
“We dominated most parts of the game. We were better than the New Zealand team. It's just that we couldn't put our chances away. To lose in a penalty shoot-out twice in three days is really unfortunate,”
England captain Barry Middleton said after the match.
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