Say Poland and Indian hockey fans old enough to remember wince. Thoughts of the 2000 Sydney Olympics come flooding back. Especially the traumatic moment when Tomas Cichy scored to make it 1-1 a mere 90 seconds from the end to shunt India out of an Olympic medal round they so passionately longed to make ever since the 1980 Moscow Games.

As a matter of fact, that fateful encounter is often referred to as the start of India’s tendency to concede goals at the death.

The two nations square up to each other again in Ipoh on Friday, the concluding day of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup round-robin phase. The encounter is inconsequential with India already having booked a slot in the final against South Korea and Poland confirmed for the wooden spoon match against Japan.
India, ranked fifth, are on a roll having collected 10 points from four matches including convincing wins over Japan (2-0), Malaysia (4-2) and Canada (7-3) but conceded a last minute goal to South Korea, their opponents in Saturday’s final in a 1-1 draw.

Poland, the lowest ranked in the tournament at No. 21, have yet to secure a point after losing all four matches to Canada (1-5), Malaysia (0-4), South Korea (2-3) and Japan (0-3).
Either team would like to finish the league in a positive frame of mind before the playoffs and victory would be more than welcome.

India are expected to test their attacking prowess where Mandeep Singh has been a livewire, if five goals he has scored so far is a testimony.

The Poles would hope to replicate a performance that nearly helped them spring an upset over 17th-ranked South Korea who fought back to overturn a late deficit.

Poland have vanished from the radar when it comes to top flight hockey. After the 2002 Kuala Lumpur World Cup, the eastern Europeans have failed to qualify for the FIH showpiece event as well as the Olympics.>

When Poland last featured in the World Cup, India beat them 4-1 in a pool match. However, Poland had pushed India to a free-fall at the 1986 World Cup in Willesden, England, with a 1-0 victory their first match. India didn’t quite recover from the setback and eventually finished with the wooden spoon.

Even when India won their last of eight Olympic gold medals at Moscow 1980, they may have not made the playoff final against Spain had it not been for an equalizer two seconds from the end against Poland. Mervyn Fernandis netted from close range to make it 2-2 and gain a valuable point for India which in the final analysis proved crucial.

At the 1972 Munich Olympics, Poland held India to a 2-2 draw and in a warm-up friendly in Warsaw before the 1973 World Cup in Amstelveen, the Netherlands, the Poles beat the highly fancied Indians 4-3. All of Poland’s goal came from the blade of Stefan Otulakowski, their penalty corner striker who emerged joint top-scorer at the 1975 World Cup with Ties Kruise of the Netherlands and Manzoor ul-Hassan of Pakistan (seven goals each).

Poland have come in as replacements for South Africa who pulled out at the last minute. Inviting the Poles made sense for both the Azlan Shah Cup organizers and the Polish federation.

Poland are due to make a landmark tour of Pakistan in April and the invitation to Ipoh must have come as God-sent.

For all their obscurity at top-level outdoor hockey, the Poles have scintillated at the Indoor World Cup finishing runners-up to then invincible Germany in each of the first three editions.