India and the Netherlands, two regulars at the Olympics, present two distinct picture insofar as their performance against each other is concerned.
While India did not lose even a token contest on the natural grass, the opposite is true once the synthetic turf came into the picture. India could defeat The Neterlands only once on synthetic turf.
From 1928 to 1972, the natural grass era, India met The Netherlands seven times out of its 10 Olympic appearances, which includes meeting the famed rival twice in one Olympics (1972).
India’s first Olympic encounter at Olympics against The Netherlands was also the famed rival’s first ever encounter in their history; that it happened to be the final of the Amsterdam Olympics add further colour to the two of the vibrant hockey nations.
On 26th May 1928, led by midfielder and Anglo-Indian Eric Penniger — who happened to be a The Netherlands’ descendent living in Lahore in the Northern Locomotive — India easily defeated the Netherlands 3-0, the lowest score for India in the entire Amsterdam campaign.
The Netherlands, like most of the Europeans, who were reeling under economic downturn, similar to what Greece is passing through nowadays, gave a bye. They were on the different pool in 1936.
So, India had to wait 20 full years again to meet The Netherlands, it was at London, the crucial semifinal.
Kishen Lal’s team struggled a lot before scrapping through by the narrowest of margin to set up title clash against the host (2-1).
Interestingly, in the every other encounter till the 1976 defeat, The Netherlands struck only one goal while losing continuously from 1928 to 1972.
Four years later when the two teams met in 1956, it was again a crucial match, the final. This time, KD Singh Babu’s India was in a roaring form, pumping six goals while conceding one.
At Rome, where later India would surrender gold to Pakistan, defeated them 4-1, and in 1964 — when the gold was reclaimed — it was a narrow 2-1, Victor John Peter, the great inside-right India ever produced, producing magic winner.
The two teams did not meet in Mexico number.
in 1972 at Munich, where the last Olympics on natural grass was played, India and the Netherlands met twice, in the opening and the last match.
For the first time, The Netherlands avoided defeat, Paul Litjens striking early and then Ashok Kumar equalizing it in the first half itself. No goals were struck in the next session and thus the match was drawn, which is a great victory for the Dutch.
However in the bronze medal match, India came on top with goal apiece coming from BP Govinda and Penalty corner expert Mukhbain Singh.
That was it. India is yet to win a Olympic match after 1972. At Montreal (1976), where synthetic turf was introduced, Dutch posted their first win (1-3). The Netherlands’ joined the Moscow boycott, and the defending Champions India played like a champions stuff four years later. They steamrolled the Dutch in the 5-6th play off for a fluent 5-2 score, with Mervyn Fernandis striking a brace, leaving Md.Shahid, captain Zafar Iqbal and Vineet Kumar score one apiece.
The lone victory survived another 20 years, as both teams were on other pool in the next four Olympics. When they met finally in 2004, The Netherlands repeated the Montreal form with identical score win (3-1).
India missed the Beijing number, and now the both are lined up to meet in their opening match, and it remains to be seen whether India will be able repeats its 1984 form.
INDIA VS THE NETHERLANDS PERFORMANCE AT OLYMPICS DETAILS
1928 India won 3 – 0
1948 India won 2 – 1
1952 India won 6 – 1
1960 India won 4 – 1
1964 India won 2 – 1
1972 Drew 1 – 1
1972 India won 2 – 1
1976 India lost 1 – 3
1984 India won 5 – 2
2004 India Lost 1 – 3
Goal for 24
Goals Against 17
Met 10 times, India won 7 times, drew once.