Dubai: Tokyo Games bronze medallist India managed to keep their hopes alive with a late 1-1 draw against Argentina in Pool B of the Paris Olympics on Monday. India, trailing until the 58th minute, were rescued by captain Harmanpreet Singh’s strike from a penalty corner.
Argentina’s Lucas Martinez scored for the Latin Americans, who were looking to move up the table after a 1-0 loss to Australia in the opener. India looked dominant in the first quarter, with bursts of attack by young Indian forwards but breaking the Argentine deadlock was a struggle. Meanwhile, Argentina looked more determined to put India under the pump right from the starting hooter.
The final quarter was absolutely dramatic, yet tense for India as they were still in the hunt to find that equaliser but Argentina’s defence hardly allowed any movement. India had to bank on aerial balls to move forward. The final few moments remained intense as India managed a flurry of PCs and were finally successful in making the late surge. Harmanpreet came up with a brilliant execution, and powerful drag to put the ball past Santiago who was exceptional throughout the game. He kept it high, aiming at the middle of the net to find the equaliser.
Splitting the points
The late goal brought huge celebrations among Indian fans present in the stands and ensured they split the winning points with Argentina.
World No 7 India, who rallied to win the thrilling opener against New Zealand 3-2, are in third spot behind reigning champions Belgium and Tokyo silver medallists Australia, with Argentina in fourth. The top four from each group will advance to the quarter-finals.
Preparation and strategy
India have been preparing for the Olympics after winning the Asian Games gold, giving them enough time to train. The Men in Blue went down 5-0 in the five-match Test series against Australia Down Under, which gave them the opportunity to adapt and alter their game against different playing styles and situations. The players were also preparing mentally and physically and were able to strategise for all their Pool B opponents.
“The good few months of preparation has allowed us to get the players game ready because fitness is obviously very important in the round-robin stages when the team will be playing five games in seven days. So fitness is really important. We’ve had the opportunity to address every player’s fitness and strength levels. The coaches had plenty of time to go into real detail around the game plans, both from a team perspective and individually. There’s been plenty of opportunity to work with the team again visually and collectively on getting them mentally prepared for the Olympics,” Paddy Upton, Indian hockey team’s mental conditioning coach, told Gulf News.
“The advantage is, we’ve got a number of players who have been at a number of Olympics before, like veteran goalkeeper PR Sreejesh and midfielder Manpreet Singh, both of whom will be making their fourth Olympic appearance. So we’ve got a lot of experience from within to share and prepare for everything that could be expected for an Olympic campaign.”
Experience and youth
The current Indian team is a perfect mix of experience and youth and, according to chief coach Craig Fulton, has the energy required to tackle the challenges ahead. Upton, who was part of the 2011 World Cup-winning Indian team under Mahendra Singh Dhoni, feels that the team is guarded against traps where the players will fail under pressure.
“Hockey is different from cricket. While it is more often individual in cricket, hockey can be much more a team sport. You need to connect with players and the team needs to run patterns of play. So the real big focus is to distribute the pressure across all 16 players, plus all the staff, and not fall into the trap. Some teams would be looking for the big and senior players to carry the weight of pressure. Our strategy is to distribute the pressure across everybody, and each one will have their turn either on attack or defense or when a player is called into a particular phase of play. And if we share the burden across everybody, it doesn’t become too cumbersome; that’s very important,” he clarified.
India will be playing Ireland on Tuesday, Belgium on Wednesday, and Australia on Friday.
