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| India laments shoddy hockey World Cup showing | | | NEW DELHI, Fri Sep 8, - India was lamenting on Friday the national field hockey team's poor performances at the World Cup in Germany following their second straight defeat.
The 1975 World Cup winners were beaten 3-2 by unfancied England on Thursday, having lost to defending champions Germany by the same scoreline in their opening Group B match.
"India Dis-Mantell-ed Again" blared the headline in The Asian Age daily, playing on the name of England striker Simon Mantell, who scored twice.
"Pathetic display puts Indian campaign out of sync," the Indian Express said.
Hockey was the national game as India notched eight Olympic titles, but the nation's cricket-crazy fans are quickly losing interest in the sport following two decades of failures in global events.
India finished ninth and 10th at the last two World Cups and seventh in the two previous Olympics.
India conceded late goals to lose both games and former skipper M.M. Somaiya called for appointing a sports psychologist.
"We don't fall short in any respect, whether it's stamina or strategy," he told the NDTV channel.
"When they're faced with such situations in crunch matches, the team suddenly tends to cave in," he said. "So, one is to simulate such things in practice, and the second is, I feel genuinely a psychologist should be with the team."
Asian rivals Pakistan and South Korea made winning starts. Pakistan, also under pressure back home due to poor results, crushed Japan 4-0 and Korea beat the Netherlands 3-2.
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