Too angry about the defeat of the home team, American hockey player Tony Granato refused to shake hands with Oleg Znarok, coach of the Olympic team from Russia (OAR).
In the men’s ice hockey game in Group B of the 2018 Winter Olympics that took place on February 17 at the Gangneung Hockey Center, the US team went to a 0-4 defeat to the OAR team. With this result, OAR recruitment will go straight to the quarter finals, while the US team will have to play the qualifying match on 20.2 next. However, the match ended with an unfortunate gesture that caused public opinion when the coach of American coach Granato suddenly refused to shake hands with the Russian coach Znarok.
In the live commentary on NBC, commentator Pierre McGuire said coach Granato was furious when the OAR team still managed to score more goals in the final minutes of the match even though they were sure. win. The captain is also said to be reacting to coach Znarok still launching the best athletes as if he wants to win a humiliating American team – the team which is not strong with the team is still very young.
It is understood that the OAR side may want to stigmatize the US to retaliate against the alleged doping scandal, which caused Russian sports to be banned in this year’s Winter Olympics. The Russian hockey game must face the 2018 Winter Olympics as a neutral athlete named the Olympic athlete from Russia (OAR).
According to AFP, in fact, the initial match took place normally despite receiving great attention from world fans because the US and Russia are having conflicts on politics and sports (doping sponsorship). However, when the match was only a few seconds away, coach Znarok used the right to substitute 34-year-old Ilya Kovalchuk to the field. Immediately after the battle, this left wing player scored two goals in 33 seconds, setting a 4-0 victory for OAR.
Speaking after the match, Mr. Granato was not finished yet, saying: “I think we played well enough to get better results than the 0-4 result. I don’t like that result. But I am really happy to see my students have put in effort and confidence in the game”. Meanwhile, according to the media, the OAR side still wants to score many goals to ensure victory and increase the score because it may affect seeding in the next round.
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