We were blessed with lot of sunshine and comparitively better weather conditions on Tuesday night when we took on Belgium in our opening pool game, but then, I was as disaappointed as any fan of Indian hockey when we only managed a 1-1 draw.
Of course, there is an explanation to our overall below-par showing, but it should not be misconstrued as an excuse for our team’s failure to put it across Belgium who, like I had said in my previous column, can prove to be quite a handful.
And so it turned out to be today. While conceding that the Belgians defended extremely well, especially their goalkeeper, I must look at my own team’s performance, particularly that of the forwards.
I was expecting to win by at least two goals even though we knew that the Belgians would be packing their defense and also resorting to tight man-to-man marking, like all European teams do these days.
Our forwards are quite skillful enough to find a way into the rival circle, but on Tuesday, they just failed to combine into an effective force.
We had our chances to score, especially seven penalty corners. Though I was happy that Len Aiyappa converted the last of the penalty corners, I felt that our conversion rate should have been better than one in seven. However, I am now hopeful that the goal would boost Len’s confidence and that he will be more successful in the future matches.
When we went 1-0 up with about 10 minutes left on the clock, we should have at least held on to the lead. But our players seemed to have lost their focus when Vikram Pillay received a green card warning and then Baljit Singh Dhillon was sent out with a yellow card in the crucial final moments.
The Belgians were quick to seize the advantage when we were reduced to 10 men and managed to score the equaliser that we should not have conceded. After all, coming away with three points is better than picking up just one.
Yes, the draw will put our team under more pressure now since we have to cover the two points that we dropped against Belgium. We have some tough games ahead of us, especially against Pakistan later in the week, and we simply cannot afford to drop any more points.
The other major minus point in our performance against Belgium was the lack of support for our forwards who also were below par in their receiving as well as combining with one another. The ball distribution of our half-backs could have been better too.
We had another off-the-field setback to deal with as one of our young forwards, Tejbir Singh, pulled a hamstring muscle and had to be sent back. We replaced him with Daljit Singh Dhillon.
I did watch a bit of Pakistan and Malaysia games and it only strengthened my belief that having a set of forwards who can score and a penalty corner specialist who converts his chances, are a definite advantage to any team.
If you carefully analyse the goals in today’s hockey, you will notice that a majority of them come through penalty corner conversions, and this is one area where the Pakistanis should be feeling extremely good.
Sohail Abbas made two conversions, and his first goal turned the game and also lifted his team to greater efforts. In this context, we are at a disadvantage, but like I said, I am hoping that Len would improve as the tournament progresses.
As for the next game against Malaysia on Thursday is concerned, we have no option but to go flat out in an attempt to win. A lesser result will only increase the pressure on my boys and this is something I can do without at this point.
Looking at the bigger picture of qualifying for the Athens Olympics later this year, I feel that we are still in the hunt for one of the seven spots available. Ideally, I wouldn’t like to leave anything to chance but try to win each and every match from here on. I think, that is the best way to go about reaching our immediate target.
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