Mandeep brace saves India blushes vs Russia
BHUBANESWAR: Shots at goal 7-6; circle penetration 10-8, ball possession 46%-54%; penalty corners 1-1 and goals 2-1.
Going by the stats at the end of the first half, it didn’t look like a clash between India and Russia here on Friday. It was more like India playing a team ranked in the top-10 and not one positioned at 22nd. Call it complacency or overconfidence, but the Indians did not start the match as a team ranked fifth in the world. The final stats were not much different either.
It was expected that the Russians would crowd the defence and they did perform superbly at the back. The Indian forwards were expected to breach the wall. However, as coach Graham Reid admitted in the post-match press conference, the Indians were not smart enough to do so.
Harmanpreet Singh converted a penalty stroke in the 13th minute, while Mandeep Singh finished off a good attack with a fine reverse hit after Andrey Kuraev had stunned the Indians with a superb field goal past Krishan Pathak in the 17th minute as India led 2-1 in the first game of the two-match FIH Olympic Qualifiers on Friday.
Reid tore into his players during half-time but that had little impact as India failed to score in the third quarter. “What can the coach do if the players fail to execute the plan…it was a very disappointing result. We expected the Russians to defend strongly and they played better than the last encounter. It happens in such matches when a higher-ranked team plays a lower-ranked team,” he said.
India did show more purpose in the final quarter, creating more chances, enjoying greater possession and scoring two more goals but what undid their belated efforts was the goal they conceded in the final seconds of the match. Seasoned forward SV Sunil scored off a penalty corner rebound in the 48th minute and Mandeep completed his brace in the 53rd minute before Semen Matkovskiy pulled one more goal back for Russia.
In the end, the hosts emerged 4-2 winners, the two-goal difference clearly unsatisfactory and unexpected. That scoreline gives the Russians a lot of hope going into the second qualifier on Saturday.
The Russian coach had promised a tough fight in his pre-match press conference, but the Indians seemed to have taken the warning lightly, perhaps overconfident after the 10-0 drubbing they gave Russia in the FIH Men’s Series Finals here. But Russia seemed to have learnt a lesson from that encounter and had come better prepared. They dominated the midfield and defence and did not allow the Indians space and scope to score. The Indians were also guilty of not creating enough pressure in the midfield and that’s where they conceded the advantage.
“We didn’t put enough pressure on them. We were a little bit better in the second half. There was a bit more energy in our play. We needed to get the ball into the midfield today. We did not get enough play through the midfield. It becomes very difficult to get the flow when those connections are missing,” said Reid.
However, the coach was hopeful of a vastly improved performance on Saturday. “I have spoken to them. Hopefully, there will be a reaction tomorrow. We can show everyone tomorrow how well we can play. I just asked them, who can play better tomorrow? Of course, they all put their hands up.”