USA have had a terrible outing in the Junior Hocinkey World Cup. After going down to Spain and Korea earlier, they were handed another thrashing on Sunday as the Netherlands beat them 14-0 at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.
In total they have conceded 36 goals so far in three matches and have scored only one. Naturally, for USA goalkeeper Shomik Chakraborty, one of the five players of Indian origin in the team and one whose father is from Kolkata, the matches have been quite a challenge.
But considering the team's experience and the little training that they have had ahead of the event, one might feel that the results were quite expected. "We had a ten-day training camp before leaving for India and then another week of training in India. The players on the east and west coast trained separately on the weekends before that," said the goalkeeper.
For Shomik, however, playing in Bhubaneswar has been quite an experience. "It's been great. The results so far haven't been what we've hoped for but we've shown improvements and are looking to build on those in the upcoming games," he added.
He has also learnt a lot working with coach Harendra Singh, who was named chief coach of the US men's team earlier this year. "I have been playing with him since the summer as he was coaching us at Junior Pan American Championship. It's been great to learn from someone with as much experience as him," he added.
Shomik, who studies international politics at Georgetown University in Washington DC, also loves to play cricket and have been playing the game at club level for Railway Union in Dublin, apart from hockey. As for learning hockey he concerned, he did it in various clubs and countries including German club Uhlenhorst Mühlheim. Earlier, he also used to play football and tennis but he doesn't play them competitively anymore.
