Canada finishes at 9th position in Indoor Hockey Tournament
Canadian Men’s Indoor Hockey team arrived back in the country after earning disappointing 9th position in the Moscow Nights Indoor Field Hockey Tournament, held in Moscow, city of Russia. The Indoor hockey tournament was preliminary to the FIH Indoor World
Cup, which would be played from February 8th to 13th in Poznan, city of Poland.
Canadian Indoor hockey team placed in Group-B along with Sweden, Iran, Belarus and the host Russia, which all proved bitter sweets for Canada. In the opening match, Iran heavily defeated Canada by 12-4 while second match was also same where Belarus overpowered
Canada by 8-3.
In the third game, Canada faced Sweden where the results were also unchanged as Canada could only score three goals against six goals of Sweden. Canada, in the last league match was badly defeated by the host Russia, which overpowered the Canadian team by
11-2.
In the last play-off match against Croatia, the players of Canadian team displayed a hard game of the tournament and marked record 14 goals against the five of Croatia. Having record of 0-4 in the Moscow Night Indoor Hockey Tournament, Canada succeeded to
make a cut and acquired a victory in the last play-off game. Canada achieved 9th position in the tournament with a record of four losses and one win.
Eshan Ali the Head Coach of the Canadian Men’s Indoor Hockey squad talking to the media said that the objective of the event was to experience the European Indoor Hockey as it was the centre of hockey teams.
Eshan Ali said, “We were surprised by the Iranian team. They were a fit squad and played a very good indoor game. After talking to their trainer I learned that the team have been focused on hockey for a while and will be until the Indoor World Cup. They
don't have jobs or other responsibilities and it certainly showed in the results as they won the tournament.”
Ehsan Ali was of the view that their other aim was to learn the European style of Indoor hockey and to test their four goalkeepers, who were part of the squad. The coach further said that they would have to concentrate on offense and defence strategies in
order to make their squad more competitive. Keeping in view the recent experiences, they will prepare a squad for Indoor Hockey World Cup, he added.
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