No pleasure, just Spain

The Spanish players celebrate a goal against India on Thursday. Photo By: Ravi kanojia
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For a while, India looked like proving them wrong — proving that they belonged to the top league in international hockey after all — but rankings don’t lie. A 5-2 loss to Spain in their crucial third encounter of the World Cup means India need to win their last two matches, keep their fingers crossed for other results to go their way and bring out the calculators to see if they have any hope of making it to the last four.
During their first two matches, India had given a good account of themselves, first in victory (against Pakistan), and then in defeat (against Australia). For the first time in the tournament on Thursday night though, India lost playing badly.

Falling to the known

You could’ve seen it coming. Spain played the way they were expected to: there were long passes, there were gentle taps to lift the ball, there were counter-attacks and there was some ultra-defensive play. India played the way they were not expected to: they missed five of the six penalty corners, they failed to finish impressive moves from the midfield, they knew the dangermen but failed to mark them tightly.

Spanish skipper Pol Amat was the key to Spain’s success, scoring once and instrumental in creating two more chances. He was marked well early on, but seemed to shake off his followers with ease and move into of the comfort zone whenever needed.

For India, Arjun Halappa was in good form: Though he wasn’t as impressive as in the first two games, he did set up quite a few chances which went abegging. Even of the five PCs that went waste, there was a chance to score off the rebound at least twice, but there was no one to do what Shivendra — sitting out his ban — did against Pakistan: finish off the rebound.

Vikram Pillay and Gurbaj Singh played deeper than they had previously and managed to shore up the defence along with Dhananjay Mahadik, but the occasional lapses in concentration at the back proved much too costly for the hosts. Also, the midfield then had no one to step up ahead.

The second half saw the Indians stepping on the pedal, and they were all over in the Spaniards, putting the ball into dangerous areas repeatedly only to find the runs blocked by an opposition stick. India paid the price for not having a poacher inside the circle. They also paid for not doing what was basic — neutralising the most important player in the opposition.

When Spain scored their fourth goal, coach Dani Martin was seen screaming and jumping with joy near the team bench, perhaps aware that, having missed chances galore, it definitely wasn’t going to be India’s day.

They definitely did not play like the number three team in the world. But they did enough to prove their credentials at crucial moments, and have more than a fair chance of reaching the semis.