Butchery in broad daylight
C’Crowd or no crowd, the Australians are too good for anyone here,’ England’s Barry Mddleton had said after his team’s defeat at the hands of India in the semi-final and that is exactly what happened on Thursday as Australia thumped India 8-0 in the final of Commonwealth Games hockey at Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium and took the gold medal Down Under once again, fourth time in as many tournament during CWG.
Apart from the first 19 minutes when the scores were level and India got a chance in the form of a penalty corner but could not even attempt a shot on target, it was all about Australian domination and India having no answers to the questions asked. Coach Jose Brasa said, after the match, that that was due to a defect in the pitch as it was not watered but the day was not about India, it was about the Australian juggernaut rolling on.
They were so good on Thursday that by the end of the match, the home crowd, in awe of them, started supporting them when they scored the last two goals. Just one instance of their commitment came in the 60th minute when Jason Wilson dived inside the Indian D area to complete a very difficult goal. At that time, the game was over as Australia were leading 5-0, gold was in the bag, but the concentration was still spot on, their style is to attack and create chances come what may and that’s exactly what they kept on doing. “Every team has a style of play and we play in an attacking style and try to create as many chances as possible. The gold medal is just another brick in the wall. Our focus is on the 2012 Olympics in London,” the Australian coach Richard Charlesworth said talking about his team’s performance.
On the other hand the real chances that India got could be counted on the fingertips of a single hand while breaching the Australian mid-field was a tall order but even if the Indian forward line reached the Aussie defense, the attack was blunted, man to man was a passé, one could always see two men against an Indian forward-line player.
After an initial stalemate of nineteen minutes, the Aussies scored four goals in the next 16 minutes and lead 4-0 going into the second half. From there on, the question was how many more would silverwas on its way for the Indian team but not without an embarrassment.
One thing that the captain Rajpal Singh thought was a positive to come out from a full list of negativities is that the Indian team kept trying till the end. “One good thing that came out from our performance is that we were attacking till the end. They were converting every chance they got, much like we did against Korea two years back. It was simply not our day,” the captain said, adding that the Australians were lucky somewhere down the line. Luck certainly, as the score-sheet would suggest was not the factor, it was the game that the men in yellow produced on the biggest stage of the tournament.
Sandeep Singh in particular did not look in either good shape or form. He was rarely seen sprinting for the ball unlike Rajpal, Sardar Singh, Dhananjay Mahadik and others who made the effort but were tamed by the supremely fit men in yellow.
For the Australians though, it was a power-packed show, they kept attacking and kept finding the net. Jason Wilson started the goal rush while Chris Ciriello made it two when he converted a penalty corner in the 21st minute and when Wilson struck again, the floodgates wre open. Luke Doerner, who is tied for most goals in the tournament with eight, scored on either side of halftime to make it 5-0. Simon Orchard, Jamie Dwyer and Glenn Turner added a goal each after that to ensure an emphatic win for Australia.