The Indian senior men hockey team gave us ‘so much hope’ in the 2016 Rio Olympics, and it wasn’t ‘asking for too much’ if hockey buffs were hoping for a podium finish from them. A post-mortem of the Indian men team’s Olympic campaign would throw one thing crystal clear - of how the national team had ‘lost the plot’ in their ‘terribly performing 2-2 draw against world number 15 Canada in their concluding league tie.
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Until the Canada game on Friday, the script looked good if not picture-perfect for India. Of course, they had a tough Olympic first match against dogged Ireland and only managed to beat them by the skin of their teeth by the odd goal in three, they appeared to have reserved their ‘best’ against reigning Olympic champions Germany and nearly pulled off a 1-1 draw before hugely talented Christopher Ruhr struck with just three seconds remaining.
The Indian men’s team put up another massive fight against the Netherlands before narrowly going down 1-2, when they had their chances to claw their way back – the slew of short corners awarded to them in the dying minutes of the match and subsequently missed by them – did them in.
One has to understand that back-to-back matches are never easy in the sweltering Rio heat, but credit must go to India for rising to the occasion and sneaking past tenacious Argentina 2-1, after soaking up a barrage of offensive pressure in the final quarter of the match. Everything was all set for them but they preferred to choose the ‘inconsistency’ path against Canada, who had nothing but only pride at stake going into the India match.
It appeared as if the team’s teeming self-belief had got a severe knock in that 2-2 drawn game on Friday, and in the quarterfinal encounter against world number six Belgium, the 5th ranked Indians for reasons best known to them were trying to be uber-cautious in terms of probing the rival citadel.
The usual scenario of two-three players ‘competing for the ball’ with one opponent player was grossly missing as they allowed Belgium to play to their strengths – enabling the Red Lions dish out their strong passing play sandwiched between switching flanks.
Much to the frustration of their fans, India just kept doing all the running and apart from some sporadic counter-attacks, there was very little the forward line could offer. Indian skipper PR Sreejesh made some valiant saves but even he was guilty of letting in Sebastian Dockier score the crucial second goal, which he could have saved easily on any other given day.
There was just too many gaps in the Indian defence, despite all the good work done by the men in the back in the earlier matches. Belgium seemed to have little trouble to penetrate the Indian defence – tight man-to-man marking – was nowhere to be seen as the Red Lions entered the Indian striking circle at will in stark contrast to India, who had to huff and puff to make a raid into the Belgium circle.
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The lack of confidence of India moving was apparent as they were unable to control possession in the face of sustained domination by the Red Lions. SV Sunil cut a lonely furrow even as Ramandeep Singh and Nikkin Thimmaiah were off colour – they were the biggest disappointments of the Rio Olympics.
With the Rio Olympics having no classification matches, the positions were based on the number of wins and goals scored in the league phase, and accordingly, India had to settle for the 8th position, a slight improvement from their wooden spoon in the 2012 London Olympics.
The Indian men’s hockey team will be left to rue for a long time of how they held a 1-0 lead at half-time and went on to concede three goals in the second half only to see their Olympic aspirations crushed. Of course, the bad day in office against Belgium does not make India’s Olympic campaign a ‘total disaster’.
It only leaves us with questions on how India came close to instilling belief among hockey lovers that the sport is heading in the right direction. Nobody doubts that even now although critics would be out with their knives out.
