83 goals: Penalty corners fuel scoring spree in HIL

High Conversion Rate Is Due To Poor Defence And Fast Turfs, Says Players & Coaches


The men’s Hockey India League was all about penalty corner goals this time with as many as 83 goals being scored from the PCs compared to 75 field goals in 33 matches. That’s more than 2.5 goals from PCs per match – not something that we are used to seeing in international hockey.
And the most successful among them was Kane Russell. The New Zealander, playing for HIL GC, scored all his 14 goals from PCs and was the second-highest scorer in the tournament.
Asked what has helped him to be so successful, Russell said, “I had a bit of momentum and a bit of rhythm. The confidence was high. Hardik (Singh) pushes the ball fast, which also helped. And we had good trappers. After all it’s a team thing; it takes three of us to score a goal.”
Another player who impressed was Alexander Hendrickx of Kalinga Lancers. The Belgian scored all his 12 goals from the PCs including the two against Ranchi Royals in the final as they grabbed the title on Monday. Even their PC conversion rate was as high as 31.8%.
And he believes it had a lot to do with how the teams defended against the PCs.
“I think the first running internationally is still at a higher level than here because you see a lot of goals being conceded on the glove side of the goalies. Obviously, the drag flickers are trying to improve, to analyse, to find new ways against the first runners and it’s a constant improvement,” said the Belgian.
Soorma Hockey Club coach Philippe Goldberg also believes the PC defence wasn’t upto the mark because of the lack of time.
“You didn’t have that much time to develop defences. It’s pretty basic with one runner going and it’s a typical one-three running. There were not so many variations because it was a one-month league,” said Goldberg during an interaction.
Goldberg also credited the fast turfs across the three cities for playing a major role behind the high rate of conversions.
Two other players who were also on song from the set pieces were Tom Boon of Ranchi Royals and Amandeep Lakra of Hyderabad Toofans. Boon scored 11 from the PCs and finished on top of the chart with 19 goals overall, while Lakra had nine in his kitty.
Despite the success of the drag flickers, one player who failed to impress was Harmanpreet Singh. The India captain could score just three goals from the PCs. However, one hopes to see him going all guns blazing once he is in action for India during the Pro League meet in Rourkela next month.