India fail to go Dutch with Holland
Five penalty corners go waste at the end as the London silver medallists escape with a victory
The more one watches the Indian team in action, the more the realisation sinks in that this is a unit that is playing smart hockey. That it’s not fumbling for want of strategy. On the face of it, Thursday’s close 1-2 loss to Holland may look like a spectacular failure. After all the team got five chances to convert a penalty corner in the final moments of the game. They didn’t and Holland escaped.
However, when one begins to analyse the mechanics of just what the team was up to, those last five penalty corner attempts seem to epitomise the smarts that this team is trying to evolve. India may have lost the battle but it was clear that this team was thinking of the whole campaign and not just one encounter. SECOND LOSS This was India’s second loss in four Pool B matches. But with four out of six teams qualifying for the quarters, India’s hopes are still bright what with one match to go. India play Canada in their final pool game and even a draw will suffice. Even if India lose that match, goal difference will be taken into account to decide just which team moves ahead.
The match began quite boring. At least, from the spectator point of view. A midfield battle ensued with both teams displaying “a chess game” as the sharp Indian coach Roelant Oltmans explained later. India did let some chances slip the Dutch way but there were no conversions till half-time.
It appeared that with Holland already qualified for the quarterfinals, that team was content to just keep guard and not unleash their famed attack. Both teams looked cagey.
However, India’s enhanced defensive capability is becoming more and more obvious with each match. Germany had managed to sneak in a heart-breaking goal in the last three seconds of that encounter but our men have repeatedly shown since then that they have the goods to keep their goal safe enough in this four-quarter format of the game.
An early goal in the third quarter made the game come alive. Mink van der Weerden’s shot was defended by the goalie in the 32nd minute but then Rogier Hofman slapped in the rebound to wake up the game. India retaliated by attacking and just six minutes later the second penalty corner saw VR Raghunath’s drag-flick dart in left of the goalie.
The third quarter proved to be an unwittingly super exhibition of India’s defensive capability. A hard tackle resulted in Ragunath and Sunil being docked out for indiscipline. They were sitting out for 10 and five minutes respectively, and this time docking spilled over into the fourth quarter. CONTAIN ATTACKS Even with nine men on the field, it was quite creditable for the Indians to have managed to contain the repeated Dutch attacks. That the Indians were able to thwart the number two team in the world from exploiting their numerical superiority spells a tight defense stemming from the cerebral positioning thought up by Oltmans.
With nearly four minutes left to go, again Oltmans played a smart card by taking the goalie off. Raghunath donned the yellow t-shirt to play notional goalie while India went on full-attack mode. This tactic has become quite common in modern hockey when the losing team figures that it has nothing to gain by defending as it is already trailing.
Coming to the final slew of five penalty corners with nothing left on the clock, India seemed reluctant to show too much variation. Raghunath and Rupinder took those shots and it was obvious that Oltmans was keeping his cards close to his chest.
India looked to force a draw but did not look overtly keen to push it through astride any spectacular penalty corner conversion. It’s apparent that the coach is keeping his best moves under wraps. Dutch goalkeeper Jaap Stockmann is considered to be one of the best in the world and the regular just wasn’t going to impress him too much.
For the special, one suspects, Indian hockey fans will have to wait for the knock-out stages.