Belarusian field hockey players missed out on medal due to carelessness

On Sunday, the team from Belarus lost to Japanese team with a score of 1:3. The Belarusian field hockey players were leading almost throughout the entire match, but at the end, in just three minutes they conceded three goals.

“Relaxing and feeling that victory was all sown up, I don’t believe our players though that. We missed victory only because of our own carelessness. At one point in time, a player did not cover an area, and at another, the defence began going around the attackers – it's all a shock to me. Defence players at this level do not have the right to make such mistakes. We lost purely because of their mistakes. Japan, of course, is a class above us, tactically and in individual skills, and this is visible to the naked eye,” said Sankavets. “In this scenario of strength, we had only one tactic for the match – play defensively and be ready for a quick counter-attack,” continued the Belarusian expert. “Until the last five minutes of the game, the girls perfectly executed this strategy. But then made elementary errors. Despite this outcome, I believe that our team looked quite good here. With each match, we just got better, though, to be honest, we were not prepared at all for this tournament.“