BHUBANESWAR: It was the sort of movement that must have made an Indian hockey fan spit his dinner. Canada, having one of their rare attacking forays into the attacking third, were parked deep in Netherlands territory. While it would have mattered little to the overall context — the Dutch were leading 4-0 with three minutes to go — a goal for the Red Caribou would have ensured a modicum of respectability to the scoreline.
Less than 10 seconds later, the Oranje had taken a 5-0 lead to completely deflate Scott Tupper and his troops. It was counter-attacking genius from a set of jet-heeled players who weaved their patterns from one end of the turf to another in the blink of an eye. Considering this is how the two-time world champions usually like to play the sport — fast, attacking moves with quick one, twos — seeing them perform like this with two minutes left in the match will have left a few fans in the stands worried. That the World No 4 team seem to be hitting top form again after an off-day against Germany will have caused more consternation to the Indian players.
India captain Manpreet Singh, who spoke to the media before the match on Tuesday, opined that it would be a 50-50 match. “We have to do our best because this is a knockout tie and we can’t afford to miss any chance. People shouldn’t feel that we will lose to The Netherlands because Indian hockey has improved in recent times... at the Champions Trophy in Breda earlier this year we drew with them. Whoever takes their chances will win.”
Even if that was a cliche-ridden answer, there is a grain of truth in that reply because out of all the remaining teams, there are no two more pacier, attacking teams than the two who will collide for a place in the semifinals on Thursday. The circle entries and the penalty corner numbers registered by both of them prove this point.
A few experts have suggested that India would be better off trying to slow down the pace of the game to frustrate the Dutch but the skipper dismissed that idea out of hand. “We are at our best when we attack,” he said. “When we go defensive, we tend to become too defensive and that gives more chances to the opponents. We will look to attack as usual so that we can put pressure on them.”
But one area of the field where India will look to stop their opponents from performing is in midfield, where the Dutch are absolutely stacked in terms of talent. “We need to strengthen our defence because the Dutch have a superb midfield, they have some of their most experienced players there so we need to break that movement.”Against the World No 11 Canada team, the Dutch used that movement Manpreet spoke about to conjure five field goals and 38 circle entries. The Indians should consider themselves warned.