BHUBANESWAR : If only the 17 Indian players had shown as much conviction in their craft during the game as Harendra Singh showed in his extraordinary 10-minute broadside against the level of officiating against his team. After seeing his band of players go down 1-2 in an exceptional game played in front of a maxed-out stadium on a working day, he came to the press conference with only one intention — trying to hijack what had been a terrific exhibition of the sport.
It was thrilling to watch and so evenly poised at one stage, it almost felt like this was a boxing match between two of the greatest pound-for-pound fighters of all time. Both took turns in punching and blocking in equal measure for the majority of the first half.
When Manpreet Singh’s men had the ball, a wave of Oranje defenders crowded them out and expertly redirected the supply line down a cul-de-sac. The favour was returned in kind when The Netherlands had the ball as the Indian spine, expertly led by Manpreet and Kothajit Singh, snapped at the heels of the artists among the opposition ranks.
Just to stretch the boxing analogy a bit further, the only time a side got past the defensive screen to land a resounding blow, the opposition found a way to level the fight before the ink on the scoresheet became dry. After India nudged ahead through Akashdeep Singh from close range following a penalty corner in the 12th minute, Thierry Brinkman sounded the board at the stroke of the first quarter break. The hosts had seemingly switched off — a worry coming into the game — and the 23-year-old got in front of his covering defender to deflect the ball home with superb wrist work.
Coming into the match, there was a fear that the similar tactics — fast and attacking — employed by both sides might make this a tactical battle. Large swathes of the second quarter confirmed this suspicion as there was an extra onus on defending. Whenever a combination of passes threatened to unlock one side’s attacking potential, the other team would regroup to repel said attack at the door. It was like watching two attack-oriented sides playing a brand of hockey that would have brought out a smile from Jose Mourinho.
With 30 minutes left in the contest, The Netherlands regrouped better at half-time. A combination of crisp pass and move hockey — their bread and butter — earned them their first penalty corner less than 120 seconds after half-time. The World No 5, who were aiming to reach a first World Cup semifinal in 43 years, thwarted the attempt but it was a sign of things to come.
Even if Harendra’s men exchanged passes and built some attacks on their own, the tide had already turned the way of the Oranje. After having 64 per cent possession in the second batch of 15 minutes, the hosts only had 52 per cent in the third stanza. Sure, they held firm and didn’t concede a goal in this block but one of the worst things in hockey is to chase the pattern left behind by an Orange shirt. After having eight circle entries in the first 30, they had six in the next 15 alone as defenders increasingly tired.
That tiredness was writ large on Amit Rohidas’ face when he was given the duty of being one of the runners for the fourth Dutch corner. He momentarily switched off — something analytical coach Chris Ciriello had warned the team against doing — and left his post a bit early. Defending a Mink van der Veerden drag-flick with five men is a challenge. Defending his drag-flick with four is like climbing Mount Everest with no oxygen supply for the last 1000m. That’s exactly what happened as he sounded the board with a little over 10 minutes left.
There was still time for an equaliser when Rohidas was sent to the sin bin for five minutes (yellow card offence) and they never recovered from that. Back at the press conference, Harendra started the rant by questioning the yellow card. “If they (umpires) don’t want to improve, we will continue to face this kind of result,” he said, much to the bemusement of the visiting coach Max Caldas who had come to the media room 10 minutes early.
“Can anyone define Rohidas’ 10-minute yellow card? What about this gentleman (after pointing his finger at Manpreet) when he was pushed from behind? Why was there no yellow card there? Two times we got a card (Hardik Singh got a green card in the 41st) when we hadn’t done anything. They need to improve.” While that is a debate for another day, the bottom line from another familiar tale of losing a big match in the last quarter is this — if India had retained focus for two key moments in the game, Harendra wouldn’t have come to the press conference with an agenda. If only...