Old habits die hard, they say. It sits perfectly on the Indian men’s hockey team.
After playing beautiful, hard-fought hockey for a majority of their Pool B match against the reigning double Olympic champions Germany, the Indians let it slip in the dying seconds of the game. Three seconds, to be precise.
Holding the mighty Germans 1-1, the German attack created tremendous pressure on the Indian defence in the last couple of minutes. And, as has been the notorious habit of the Indian team, the defence relented. The Germans scored the winner three seconds shy of the hooter. They celebrated wildly, the Indians were crestfallen, captain PR Sreejesh stayed put at the goal post for a long time after the end of the game. The picture was all too familiar.
Old habits die hard, they say.
Luckily for India, this 1-2 defeat should not hurt them too much in the larger context of the tournament. With the new quarterfinal system in place, the top four teams from each group will progress. India play Argentina on Tuesday, and then take on The Netherlands and Canada. If they continue to play at the level at which they played against Germany, they should not have a problem making the quarterfinal.
The Indians matched the Olympic champs on every front on Monday. India started the match as underdogs going by the recent record against the mighty Germans, but it turned out to a very closely contested battle.
It was even-stevens between the two sides in the first two quarters, with both teams showcasing some good attacking and defending skills.
The Indians had the better share of exchanges in the first quarter and even put the opposition under tremendous pressure midway through the first quarter, but the German defence did just enough to avert any crisis.
After a barren opening quarter, the champions enjoyed a good share of possession at the start of the second and broke the deadlock in the 18th minute against the run of play when Niklas Wellen beat Sreejesh with a forehand strike after being fed by Linus Butt.
Christopher Ruhr soon came close to doubling Germany’s lead only to be denied by Sreejesh.
It took some brilliant individual effort from India’s captain for the match, SV Sunil, to earn a penalty corner, their first in the game. Rupinderpal Singh pounced on the opportunity and dished out a powerful flick to the right of Jacobi to score his third goal of the Games and level the scores.
If not for German goalkeeper NicolasJacobi, India could have scored at least three to four more goals.
An alert Jacobi first kept away Nikkin’s deflection in the third second quarter and then came up with terrific double save to first deny Rupinderapl from India’s second penalty corner and then Chinglensana Singh from the resultant rebound as India made a promising start after half time.
India got another short corner soon this time Rupinderpal’s try was blocked by an onrushing runner before Sardar Singh’s deflection from a Surender Singh cross just flew wide of the German goal.
But just when it seemed that India had done just enough to split points with the World No. 3 Germans, Ruhr spoiled the party with his late strike.
—with PTI inputs
RESULT
Germany 2 (Niklas Wellen 18, Christopher Ruhr 60) bt India 1 (Rupinderpal Singh 23)
N ZONE
1996
The last time India defeated Germany in the Olympics was way back in the 1996 Athlana Olympics, when the Indians secured a 3-0 victory
Top-ranked Aussies stunned by Spain
World No. 1 Australia were given a rude shock in their second Pool A match by 11th-ranked Spain, who stunned them 1-0 late on Sunday night. After defeating New Zealand 2-1 in their opening encounter, the Australians were expected to have it easy against the lower-ranked Spaniards. However, Alex Casasayas scored in the sixth minute to give Spain the lead, and their defenders ensured that it remained that way for the rest of the match.
[Source:- DNA]
