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DEAR REDIFF

India in Junior World Cup semis

This is India's first ever entry into the semis of this tournament.

On the day, the Indians presented a superb display of attacking hockey, to outclass Belgium in all departments of the game. The winners led 2-1 at half-time.

India and Spain both finished their pool ''A'' league assignments with ten points, but the former side booked a spot in the last four on superior goal differential.

Completing the semifinal line up along with India are Australia, Germany and England.

India, who had figured fifth in the first three editions of the World Cup and failed to qualify for the fourth and fifth, broke the jinx with some exciting hockey at Milton Keynes in this edition.

The final league game against Belgium though started on a none too good note for India, which did not look adequately pumped up for the ocassion, making elementary mistakes in the midfield and slipping into the old habit of hanging on to the ball too long.

This enabled Belgium to counter attack through its own midfield, and one of these moves in fact saw the Belgians take the lead in the 16th minute through Patrick Gierts.

Visibly stunned, India fell back into defense but recovered after a couple of stirring moves involving Rajesh Chauhan and Rajiv Mishra. With just five minutes to go for the first half and with things looking a bit desperate, Baljit Chandi latched onto a loose ball outside the circle, moved in and let loose a stinging shot that the Belgian custodian, Stephane Moraux padded away. However, Samir Dad pushed in the rebound, for the equaliser.

Pressing hard, India got one more before the lemon time. In the 34th minute, off India's second penalty corner, Dilip Tirkey shot was taken on the pads by Moraux and as Harbhajan Singh scooped the rebound towards goal, it hit a defender's leg. Umpire Steve Graham pointed to the spot. Mishra scooped powerfully to put India ahead.

After the break, played a more dazzling style of hockey. The third goal came in the 51st minute thanks to the brilliance of Samir Dad, who took the ball from just inside the centre-line, sped forward, drew Moraux out of the goal and scooped home.

Four minutes later, in the 55th minute, India got a free hit outside the circle. Dilip Tirkey's hit sped along the carpet and Rajesh Chauhan, diving full length, connected for India's fourth goal.

Belgium however never did give up and, in fact, forced two penalty corners late into the second half. The alert Indian defence, however, saved well on both occasions, pushing the ball out of danger from the line.

Around this time, Indian skipper Baljit Singh Saini took a nasty crack on the knee and had to be carried off the pitch. News from the team management however is that Saini's injury is not serious, and he will be part of the starting lineup for the semifinal against Germany to be played on Friday.

Belgium got its second goal with only two minutes left in the match when Christophe Milecan took advantage of an Indian defensive error to send the ball crashing into the net.

Indian coach V Bhaskaran praised his team's performance and said that it was because of the team's fighting qualities that they could make it to last four stage.

''We lost our first match against Spain and not many people gave us too many chances to enter the semi-finals,'' he said. ''But I give full credit to the boys for sticking it out and believing in themselves, and making the last four grade for the first time in our history."

Bhaskaran, though, warned against overconfidence and said there was still room for improvement. "We have to concentrate on winning the game against Germany, and then going on to win the final. But the boys need to improve a hell of a lot before they can think of themselves as a world-beating side. For instance, against Belgium, we made too many errors in the beginning before finding our rhythm -- better teams will not give us that luxury, there won't be much chance to recover if we start badly."

When asked whether he would be changing the goalkeeper to bring back Teja Singh back into the team, Bhaskaran said he will decide after consulting the others members of the team management.

''A goalkeeper should be given confidence, and Jagdish Ponnappa hasn't done badly. In fact, in the match against Belgium he was blocked by two defenders and that was the reason why he didn'react in time to clear both the balls that ended up in goals.''

Pointing out that Germany are by no means to be underrated despite a 6-2 loss to Pakistan, Bhaskaran said, "We have already faced Germany on our European tour and have beaten them. But a World Cup semi-final is a different occasion all together.Trust me, Germany will be tough, and I believe both the teams have equal chances,'' he added .

Asked why the Indian finishing within the circle remained poor, the coach said, "Yes, that is a problem, and we can't afford that from here on. In the league, you always get a chance to repair the damage in the next game - but from now on, we are into the knockout phase, and one chance is all you get. If we don't convert our chances, we will miss out on a great opportunity to lift the trophy."

The coach professed himself happy that the team has been improving as the tournament went on. ''Some of the boys like Rajiv Mishra, Samir Dad, and Rajesh Chauhan are playing in their first major tournament. I think they have done a great job till now. As I said earlier, many of the boys here are very good prospects to make the senior team."

Final positions- Pool A

Team	Played	Won	Draw	Lost	Goals For	Goals Against	Points
Australia	5	3	2	0	18	6	11
India	5	3	1	1	19	9	10
Spain	5	3	1	1	14	7	10
Netherlands	5	2	1	2	13	11	7
Belgium	5	1	1	3	8	13	4
Cuba	5	0	0	5	5	31	0

Final positions- Pool B

Team	Played	Won	Draw	Lost	Goals For	Goals Against	Points
Germany	5	4	0	1	15	9	12
England	5	3	0	2	12	10	9
Pakistan	5	2	2	1	16	10	8
Argentina	5	2	2	1	12	12	8
Japan	5	1	0	4	8	14	3
Egypt	5	0	2	3	7	15	2