India to play for pride, face Argentina for 9th place tomorrow

Monchengladbach, Sep 15 (UNI) Medal hopes up in the smoke and reputation in tatters, India will have to fire on all cylinders tomorrow in the ninth place classification match against Pan-American champions Argentina to avoid further humiliation in the hockey World Cup.

The Dilip Tirkey-led side will have to put behind their memories of the tormented league in which they failed to win a single match.

Now at least they get the chance to record their first win in this edition of the World Cup.

India had beaten Argentina here in April when the two teams clashed in the Easter four nation tourney and they had also overpowered the Latin Americans in the Athens Olympics.

But going by their showing in the World Cup so far, they are in for a tough time.

Four defeats and a draw in pool B has put the Indians in similar situation they were in the 1986, 1990, 1998 and 2002 World Cups but a ninth place position is better than going home with a wooden spoon and the Indians should realise this.

Apart from Argentina, India is clubbed with Japan and South Africa in the classification matches for 9-12 positions.

The Indians will have to avoid conceding penalty corners against Argentina, who have a victory against Pakistan to their credit in the league. Also, the Argentines forced a 1-1 draw with Spain, the team which has made it to the last four.

Coach Vasudevan Bhaskaran has still not lost the hopes. He thinks his boys have the capability to produce winning results. But he warns that the team should not concede any more soft goals.

''The few soft goals that we conceded, especially against Germany, hurt us a lot. The players couldn't pick themselves up from the early reverse,'' the coach said.

He said the team would have to play an attacking game but they should be very careful not to concede soft and last minute goals.

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