BHUBANESWAR: For exactly seven minutes, the men’s hockey team’s result was in danger of overshadowing the women’s scoreline. After the hosts had predictably opened the scoring through Harmanpreet Singh, Russia, who clearly hadn’t read the script, equalised two minutes into second quarter. For the next seven minutes the score stayed that away, nervous glances were exchanged in the press box.
On the field, the players were getting a tad frustrated. This wasn’t meant to be hard. The last time these teams met, it finished 10-0. Even after Mandeep Singh restored the advantage, the Men In Blue never got going.
While some credit should go to the World No 22 — after parking the proverbial bus around their D, they executed that game plan to perfection with some quick counters, India just weren’t at the races today. While India did win 4-2, it could have been a lot uglier had the visitors finished off the opportunities they created.
A fact that Russia’s coach Vladimir Konkin pointed out. “It wasn’t our defence, expertly marshalled by our captain (Denis Shchpachev), alone that played well. Even our forwards played well but a pity that they didn’t take some of the chances that fell their way.”
While they will have to show more attacking vibes on Saturday, they were pleased to stay in the tie with 60 minutes to go. “It’s a good result for us but now we have another challenge and we will see how to tackle it.”
For India’s coach, Graham Reid, he wants to see something better from his charges. “It’s a problem when all the players don’t play at their maximum level, luckily we have one more opportunity to show what we are capable of.” He didn’t sound too pleased when asked whether they would come with a different strategy on Saturday. “Yes, maybe play better than what we did today (Friday).” Forward SV Sunil, who scored the fourth goal, echoed the same sentiments. “We could have played better.”
At an impromptu team huddle on the pitch, all the players put their hands up when Reid asked them: “who among you can play better hockey?” When asked what changed between the showing in June and now, Reid said all credit should go to Russia. “They have had a longer time to prepare,” he said. “They have had our video for five-six months and identified the players who could do a job.”
Result
India 4 (Harmanpreet Singh 5th, Mandeep Singh 24th, 53rd, SV Sunil 48th) bt Russia 2 (Andrey Kuraev 17, Semen Matkovskiy 60).