Duisburg(Germany): We started our European sojourn with an exciting 2-2 draw against the hosts Germany in the one-off Test in Duisberg on Wednesday night. In the tough match, conspicuous for its man to man marking tactics, Gagan Ajit, who was not among the goals in Australia, scored the first goal in the 10th minute.
We guarded the lead till the 40th minute when winger Sascha Reinelt neutralized in a counter attack. Coach Bernhard Peter’s blue-eyed boy Florian Kunz, 2002 FIH Player of the Year, came up with his patented grounder within five minutes in a penalty corner drill to put us behind.
The match, in which our umpire Suresh Bhatia was baptised, turned more physical later on. In the ensuing unfriendly proceedings in the so-called friendly match, perhaps for the first time in his career Dhanraj Pillay was shown yellow card. Kanwalpreet Singh too was sent out simultaneously by umpire Bjorn Bachmann.
As we were struggling to cope up with just nine players in those tense moments, Jugraj drag-flicked over the head of goalie Arnold Clemens, denying Germany a victory in his 100th match, with hardly few seconds left for the hooter.
This is an impressive German side though veterans like Oliver Domke, voted as the Best Player of the German Hockey Agency in March this year and former captain Christian Mayerhoefer are not in the team.
Michael Green (age 32, caps 266) made a sedate return after the KL World Cup, but on Wednesday he was not what he used to be – a shrewd play maker. Our midfield did not yield much leeway for him either.
I am happy with the draw, more so with the fighting spirit we continue to display. However, results should not count much as this tour is again an experimental mission. Penalty corner conversion, maximizing field goals, attacking midfield, tapering off the match on our terms are some of the areas we will concentrate here.
That this list is long enough indicates that the road ahead is long — and strenuous too.
We have by and large identified our forward and defence line ups, with adequate bench strength. The same cannot be said of midfield. This is the reason why I decided to test young V.S. Vinay. He will be tried at right-half, a position I consider vital for my scheme in an attacking game. Whoever performs better among Baljit Saini, Viren Rasquinha, Vikram Pillai and Vinay will be my final right-half.
So far in my 13-month coaching, I have not had an opportunity to study Spain and Argentina. The Hamburg Masters 4-Nation Cup that commences with our match against Pan American Champions Argentina on Friday presents me exactly this opportunity to see for myself both the fancied teams.
Experiments apart, we have to prove our worth in the 4-Nation Cup, for we haven’t been done well here in the past. In 1996 (captain Pargat Singh, coach Cedric D’Souza), we lost two games and drew one. We scored just one goal while conceding 18 in 1997 (Coach Pargat Singh, captain Harpreet Singh). In our last participation in 1998, India A (coach C.R. Kumar, captain Rahul Singh) again returned winless. In all, we lost eight of the nine matches at Hamburg, scoring eight goals while conceding four times more.
Expectedly, the `weakside’ was not invited subsequently. We are on a winning streak now, and will endeavour to erase those gloomy past.
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