Poland break Indian hearts with late goal

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Sydney: India bowed out of the Olympic hockey competition with a 1-1 draw against Poland in a crucial Group 'B' match at the State Hockey Centre on Tuesday.

Playing under a constant drizzle, the Indians gave some hope when Dileep Tirkey gave India the lead following their fourth penalty corner in the second half of the match. The Polish players, with nothing to lose but pride, hit back and equalised with 90 seconds remaining for the match.

Tomasz Cichy scored a superb field goal following a counter attack to shatter the Indian dreams. The entire Indian team showed disappoint by lying down on the ground when the final whistle was blown. Goal-keeper Jude Menezes' tears said the whole story as the Indians lost a great opportunity at another Olympic medal hope.

The Indian intentions were very clear in the second half as they launched into a series of attacks. The move paid dividends as they earned penalty corners of which they scored. Dilip Tirkey was alert to pounce on a rebound of his first attempt to sound the boards, which had the Indian hearts pumping fast.

Cichy, however, spoilt the Indian party with time running out. Earlier, the two teams were locked goalless at half time. India were reduced to 10 men with about 10 minutes remaining as star forward Mukesh Kumar was sent out with a yellow card.

The Indians found the going tough under the constant drizzle. They could not set up the kind of pace that they had shown in their first two matches against Argentina and Australia.

Having lost to Korea in their third match, the Indians had to win this last encounter to ensure a semi-final berth along with Australia from this group.

The match was more or less evenly poised with both the teams sharing an equal number of chances, but failing to convert them. While all of India's opportunities came from field efforts, Poland also earned three penalty corners to no avail.

The Indians found the conditions a little heavy and could not muster many defence breaking moves. Even on a couple of occasions that they broke the deep defence, they were not on target.

The Indians, in fact, came a cropper against the tight and clean defence of Poland. The Indians failed to earn even a single penalty corner in the first session despite entering the 'D' a few times.