Sunday 14 February 2010

Good Morning

At the day the Chinese new year will be celebrated together with Valentine's day, several WC preparation news for you.

But we start with the horrible news of the bomb blast in Pune not very far from where the National team of India stayed before the shift to New Delhi.

Our feelings of sympathy are with the family and friends who lost people during this attack. Terrible news but it is the world we are living in.

What about the WC preparation matches? India played two days as we have mentioned in latest news their test match against the Oil combined team and were defeated 4-1. Although the reporters of this article were quite relaxed about this result, it is another sign on the wall India is far from ready.

Most reporters are very positive about the influence of the head coach Jose Brasa but the first real success needs to be achieved. India with today exactly 2 weeks before the start of the World Cup didn't show any good signs yet.

Yesterday also the Dutch brigade and the Spanish nationals played their test match in Spain. After the Netherlands were leading with 2 goals at the break, the Spanish came back and took a draw out of this match. Finally it went 2-2.

Tomorrow afternoon the second match of this test series will played and then both teams are ready with testing.

Coming week Wednesday and Thursday New Zealand and the Kookaburras are scheduled for a test-series to play 2 matches.
Also for them the last test before the World Cup will start.

In today's news a nice article how the World Cup travelled to Ludhiana to give the tournament another extra boost in India.

We wish you a pleasant Sunday and happy Chinese New Year and keep smiling,

Hockey Asia