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| India face South Africa today in Champions Challenge |
Indian team which continued the tradition of conceding last minute goals will be facing the heat against South Africa who were clinical against Poland. South Africa created dozen chances and could have finished the game in the first-half with the score 2-0 in the end of it.
Coach Nobbs will have to take this Indian team back to the basics with a focus on Indian defense. Indian team which were horrible defensively yesterday face another strong test when they take on South Africa. Indian team’w whole focus will be again on the strikers who failed to fire yesterday (exception = Chinglensana Singh Kangujam). Every Indian striker failed to capitalize the chances and were too slow against fit Belgium side. India has worries on the defensive part too with Sandeep Singh (past his best?) and Sardara Singh had very poor game and gifted many chances to the Belgium team.
For India, major threat will be from Justin Reid-Ross who scored two goals in the opening game through penalty corner. South African defender Lloyd Madsen will also pose a threat to Indian team as his passes caused lot of problems for the Indian team
India will again bank on the experience of Shivendra and Tushar. Both strikers failed had an ordinary game and a lot will be expected of them, in terms of winning penalty corners and scoring goals.
On the outset, it looks South Africa all the way, but Indian team has the caliber and the experience to take on them. Indian team just needs to take care of its defense against South Africa and once that is done, them can go on and win the game easily.
My prediction: South Africa 3-1 India (I really hope is the other way around and the margin is huge)
South Africa’s team: Brendon Botes (GK), Rassie Pieterse (GK),Justin Reid-Ross, Lloyd Madsen, Lance Louw, Rhett Halkett, Gareth Car, Andrew Cronje, Austin Smith (C), Wade Paton, Taine Paton, Tim Drummond, Clinton Panther,Ian Haley, Marvin Harper, Lloyd Norris-Jones, Miguel da Graca, Thornton McDade
The game will be live on TEN Sports at 8:20 pm IST
(Image Source: Google Images)
