Indian men’s team did not inspire despite posting a crucial first match win over the vastly improved Russians. With a brace of goals from Mandeep Singh, Manpreet Singh’s men posted 4-2 win to move into the second match with two goal advantage but what would rankle judicious Indian chronicler is the fact that Graham Reid team again conceded a goal in the dying moments of the game. This aspect has been a bane for Indian men’s hockey for over a long time, and its repeat here against a much lower ranked team causes concern. Unless Russia will defeat India tomorrow in the repeat match, which is an unlikely as things stand now, men will be making it to Tokyo with a draw or win.

Considering the fact that the Russians were raw when they visited in June for the FIH Series Finals and thus lost 10-0 to India, today marked their remarkable improvement.

Russian coach Vladimir was right when he said later this: “As we told you yesterday, we played a great match compared to previous (10-0). For tomorrow, we will analyse. Our coaching staff will fix things. Tomorrow you will see a change in tactics”.

“The reason why we played so good is that our guys did exactly what our coaching staff told them to do. That’s why we had some good result. Actually, we had a lot of opportunities for our forwards but we missed it”.

Indian coach Graham Reid was frank and forthwith in his comments too. “I am not surprised with the Russian performance. They came out and played very well. Full credit to them. The world rankings systems, it looks like they are 22 in the world. But they are a really good team. That’s what I have been telling all along. They had no pressure, went in as the underdog”.

“I was disappointed with the way our boys played. I have spoken to them about that. Hopefully, there will be a reaction tomorrow. We can show everyone tomorrow how well we can play. I just asked them, who can play better tomorrow? Of course, they all put their hands up. They will have their opportunity to show us how well they can play”.

Aware of criticism he faces for his team conceding last minute goal, he said: “I know that there is that talk about Indian hockey. That’s what can happen in the game of hockey. It’s fast, things move quickly. If you make a mistake, that’s what can happen”.

“A little disappointed with a few things that we talked about. We didn’t get enough pressure on them. We were a little bit better in the second half”.

Analysing what went wrong, he said: “We needed to get the ball into the midfield today. We did not get enough play through the midfield. It gets very difficult to get flow when those connections are missing”.

Graham Reid also felt that penalty corner is one area he would concentrate. “Penalty corners is always one of those things to improve. We love to score more from penalty corners. During our last tour, we had 0 from 7 in the first game and had 100% in the next four games. Part of the problem always is the sections to the corner. We mis-trapped two today. We need to make sure that doesn’t happen again”.

Let’s hope that doesn’t happen today, and also expect the boys to take a cue from girls who beat USA, a pro-league team comprehensively.

Photo: s2h photographer Shamim Qureshy