Poor finishing a worry for India: Nobbs

Indian hockey coach Michael Nobbs is concerned about poor finishing as the men’s team scraped past Canada 3-2 in their fourth match of the 2012 London Olympics qualifiers at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium here Wednesday.

Nobbs said he expected a tough fight from Canada, four places below India at World No.14, and lauded his boys for putting up a spirited show.

“We always expected a tough fight from Canada. It was a tough game and we played well. In fact, Canada also played well,” he said.

The Australian was happy with the team’s penetration but said it was poor finishing that was troubling India.

“We missed 13-14 chances. They had only two shots at the goal from which they scored. Our finishing was not good. We were poor inside the 4-metre area,” he said.

Meanwhile, Indian women’s coach C.R. Kumar said the 2-5 loss to South Africa has put his team in a must win situation in their next match against Italy slated for Friday.

“We played poorly today and committed lot of unforced errors. We are in a must-win situation against Italy in our next match,” he said.

Kumar also lamented that substitutions didn’t work for his team.

“Today substitutions didn’t work. Whenever we made a substitution we conceded a goal,” he said.