Five men’s matches and 70 goals. It was the second day of the Youth Hockey World Championships as the U-21 class gap was very visible in Bhubaneswar.
Spain set a record for goals scored in the event in a single match, as the European team scored 17 goals against the United States. The previous record was India’s 13-0 victory over Singapore in the 1982 FIFA U-20 World Cup Finals.
Argentina, the Netherlands, Spain, France and India scored the victories, and offensive hockey performances in all five games meant that no fewer than eight goals were scored in any match.
Argentina got off to a strong start to the season, scoring 14 goals against Egypt who were bent on a mistake but are prone to error.
While the Netherlands will be happy when they start winning and scored an impressive 12 goals, coach Michael van der Stork will be wary of defensive mistakes that allowed Korea to score five goals in response.
At Miles Bukens, Holland thought scoring was better. The striker showed speed, flair and awareness to score five.
Argentina may have thought they had the highest score of the day, but Spain had other ideas. The United States kept the European side in stalemate for seven minutes, but then the door opened wide. Manuel Rodriguez scored two goals in the first quarter, Guillermo Fortuno scored two goals in the last minute of the match and scored another 13 goals between them in a lightning match 17 goals.
France continued their impressive start to the competition with another lively performance that put them at the top of Group B with a 7-1 victory. Corentin Sellier scored three goals for France in addition to the one he scored the day before against India.
Then India returned from its loss at the hands of France by defeating Canada 13-1.
Sanjay and match player Hundal Singh scored a hat-trick.
