Only a day ago, four-time Olympian Juan Manuel Vivaldi of Argentina expressed his wariness for Indian penalty corner battery and its impact on the outcomes of the matches. His worries came true, as India converted two penalty corners besides adding a soft field effort to romp home an impressive 3-1 victory over the Rio gold medalist in the opening match at Oi hockey stadium, Tokyo
With three wins in four matches, India has entered the quarterfinal though another match will be played tomorrow, against the hosts.
India rested Birendra Lakra and Lalit Upadhyay for the day, bringing in Varun Kumar and Simranjeet Singh in their place.
India played a disciplined hockey with immaculate moves and thrusts, entering the circle quite often. The Argentinean were content in controlling the Indian press and were overboard on defence.
Until 40th minutes it did not appear India would score, score at all, as they were too gentle and less purposeful inside the circle. It was Rupinder Pal Singh’s acute sense of wisdom that he saw a penalty corner coming out his Referral.
Varun Kumar, till now sitting out on the bench, punched one after Rupinder Pal Singh sold dummy (1-0).
Like in the first two quarters and the larger part of the third, India continued to dominate the ball possession and circle entry, though without much of purpose.
A flurry of substitutions kept the team on fresh legs, which showed as the Indians were running faster and quicker on turn overs.
Harmanpreet scoring the team’s third goal at Tokyo
India created numerous opportunities but could not transform into goals. At the fag end of the third quarter, three continuous went abegging, Harmanpreet Singh’s drags were well anticipated by the hawkish Juan Manuel Vivaldi, who is on his fourth Olympics.
To make matters worse, Surender Kumar’s stick tackle on captain Mazzli ended up the Dutch umpire signalling for a penalty corner. Maico Casella targetted right corner and Sreejesh and Surender were beaten comprehensively (1-1).
At that time when the scored tied, 13 minutes were left. The match was tantalizingly poised. Tension was building up. Each side got reprieve from umpires, playing with just 10 players.
India cam on its own form in this spell. Yes, struck two goals in the last three minutes!
Hardik Singh and Vivek prasad made a combined move. Even as Vivke was deflecting a minus pass from Hardik, the ball got deflected into the goal — own goa variety – to give India the breather (2-1). A minutes later, Harmanpreet Singh, who was otherwise not successful at penalty corners, converted the last penalty corner of India (3-1).
Standby players Lalit, Krishan Pathak and Birendra looks on as Indian national anthem being played at Tokyo
Before the India’s first goal, as couple of their penalty corners were not giving result, Alejandro Matias Rey got a loose ball near the half line and sprinted past to circle. In a one to one situation, Sreejesh managed to block his backhander. The big break did not happen thankfully for the Indians. However, a minute later Varun did what he did and India was all over again.
After a long time, India won three matches in the pool. India will take on Japan tomorrow. Before that Indian women will meet Ireland 11.45 JST.
Over all team stat before start: India 7 goals(2- Fg-3PCg-Sg2 (Arg 5-2-3); Substitutions 240 (Arg 125); Cards: 2g (Arg 6g-2y); Video Ref: 8, 5 upheld (Arg 3, 1 upheld); PC Conversion 3 out of 16 (Arg 3 out of 9).