JOIN USArgentina coach Carlos Retegui lashed out at the international hockey federation (FIH) over the scheduling of the Hockey World League Final, saying his side was forced to play too many games in a short span of time as compared to some other teams.
Addressing the media after his team's draining semifinal win against India, Retegui slammed the world body for forcing Argentina into playing two knockout games on consecutive days while three other semi-finalists -- India, Australia and Germany -- had a day's break at least.
"Australia, in nine days, have four matches (actually five) while we have played four games in six days (actually seven). It's not fair," Retegui thundered. "India had a day's rest and were in better condition than us as we played yesterday. We were told as late as 10 pm yesterday that we would be playing the semifinal today. We were ready and wanted to play today. But we don't know why two semifinals are not played on the same day."
Retegui also hit out at the format that doesn't reward group stage performance and hands out a quarterfinal berth for the participating teams.
India coach Sjoerd Marjine refused to the blame the conditions for the defeat. "Both teams could not play their best game. You have to deal with the circumstances. You can't complain."
"I am not disappointed about the performance. I think the third quarter was better than first two. I was happy with them. I can't blame anyone for this loss. We had more penalty corners, more circle penetrations against the Olympic champions. We have to deal with disappointments like this. We will talk, recover, focus and go from there."