You could say round one to Europe except, of course, Europeans are now coaching the Asian giants.

The victories of the Netherlands over India (3-1) and Germany over Pakistan (2-1), both under floodlights, were hard earned but deserved. European teams probably gained a big psychological advantage on the first day of the men’s Olympic competition.

What the huge number of enthusiastic Asian spectators present certainly had to concede was that the best European sides can often match the Asian skills and are still physically stronger.

Germany’s 2-1 victory over Pakistan match was the better game. Pakistan has had longer than India to assimulate the ideas of their European coach and it showed.

It is expecting too much of Gerhard Rach for his young team to have absorbed everything he is trying to teach them immediately. It is not just tactics that win Olympic matches but attitude. No coach knows exactly how his team will perform in their opening Olympic match and India had a good few newcomers.

Rach went into this first game against the Netherlands, the redoubtable defending champions, with a plan. When the Dutch scored after just 100 seconds, that plan went out of the window. The goal followed an error by one of the youngest Indian players.

The Dutch then turned the screw keeping India under a lot of pressure it said a lot about the development of the Indian team that they weathered the storm. But India had to take risks to regain parity and that allowed the Dutch too much space to build their attacks.

Rach said afterwards, “It was not such a bad game for India. One of the differences was attitude. The Dutch went into the game thinking”we will beat them, my team were thinking we may beat them”. He knows he has to change that mind-set.

Rach felt that as soon as his team had the opportunity to attack, they expected something to happen. “They were not patient enough”. Terry Walsh, the Australian now coaching the Dutch, affirmed, “India were extremely fast and skilful but they tended to be flamboyant and that gave us some space. Making use of that space is one of the Dutch strengths”.

The killer blow was the second Dutch goal midway through the second half. It was a beautiful Dutch attack but the scorer, a below-par Teun de Nooiyer, was lucky the ball ran to him.

It was just as well that the Adrian D’Souza in the Indian goal played so well or the score difference might have been even bigger.

The Dutch defence did not play so well and they needed their goalkeeper Guus Vogels to be on top form though the Indian attack too often failed to combine well in the front third of the pitch. Exempt from some of that criticism must be Gagan Ajit who had a fine game. Sadly one has to report that the veteran Dhanraj Pillay did not have a lot to contribute on this occasion.

India undoubtedly showed a lot of promise. It was a very tough opening match. There is no disgrace to lose to such a powerful team as the Dutch. But despite falling at the first hurdle, there is nothing to stop India attacking the second hurdle, South Africa, surprise 2-1 winners over Argentina, and demonstrating what they can do.