Hockey World Cup 2023: Tough but nothing beyond India

Hosts hope to start campaign with a win against Spain at Rourkela on Friday

Indian Hockey team

ROURKELA: Since December 5 2022, the FIH men's World Cup has been on a 'Trophy Tour' around the country. Kolkata, Imphal, Lucknow, Bengaluru... you name a place and it's been there. Right before the start of the 15th edition, it feels like that's the closest the country will come towards experiencing a title parade.

There have been heightened expectations following the Olympic bronze in Tokyo in 2021 — this is of course the first time India will play in a World Cup as Olympic medallist since the 1982 event in Bombay — but the general sentiment is that the gold may elude them till at least 2026. Even reaching the podium and ending a 47-year medal drought looks like a big ask.

Unlike in 2018, there are two clear favourites in Belgium and Australia, with India, clubbed in a second rung of teams like England, Germany and The Netherlands. One only needed to listen to Shane McLeod to know this sentiment is prevalent up and down the hockey paddock.

"It is clustered a little bit," McLeod, who led Belgium to their maiden title in 2018, told this daily a few weeks ago. "From what I have seen, the stand-out teams over the last few years are probably Belgium and Australia. Then, you have a cluster of teams like India, and England... these teams could easily reach the final. It will be interesting to watch the World Cup but just think there are two teams sitting above at the moment," McLeod, a consultant with the Belgium side, added.

Garreth Ewing, South Africa's head coach till he stepped down in November, sang from the same hymn sheet. "I think it's going to be a tough World Cup for teams ranked outside the top eight," he told this daily. "I think that Australia... they looked so dominant at the Commonwealth Games. I really see Australia, Netherlands and Belgium competing for the top spot. Then, it will be interesting to see where India, Germany and England come through."

There are a few reasons for this prevailing sentiment. It mainly has to do with India's defensive issues. Most of it was laid bare in the recent five-match series against Australia at Adelaide in the back-end of last year. Sure, India scored a lot (17 in five games against a high-class side cannot be sniffed at) but they ended up conceding 25. While there is always the caveat of teams using tune-up events to experiment with multiple systems and players (India played more than 30 players in 2022), that Australia series once again displayed the side's worrying tendency not to close out the space in the box.

The Kookaburras time and again found joy inside the area and were more than happy to take their chances. In a microcosm, the failure to shut down space was a throwback to the 0-7 defeat in the final of the Commonwealth Games.

While India was much better from an attacking perspective Down Under — they picked up their first win against Australia since 2016 — the defensive numbers didn't make for good reading. Take the team's three main assignments since the beginning of 2022. The Pro League (20 matches, 52 goals conceded), Commonwealth Games (six matches, 14 goals conceded) and the trip to Australia. Even taking into context that the sport is high-scoring, these numbers are very high.

In one year, they have either lost 2-5, 3-5, 4-5, 4-5, 4-7 or drawn 4-4, 3-3 or won 4-3, 4-3, 4-3 and 3-2. In a game of fine margins, this is clearly unsustainable. That's before you compare it to the likes of Belgium, the gold standard for international defending in the sport. In 16 Pro League matches since the beginning of 2022, they have given away 25 goals. Some of the defensive issues have to do with the fact that the side has tried out so many players, and juggled different systems and pressing patterns. While it will be a stretch to say coach Graham Reid won't know his best pattern heading into the opening match, he will want a defensively solid performance at the start of the tournament just to spread some confidence into the camp. 

It's in this context that their pool matches against Spain and England are of added significance. While they can potentially lose against both those teams and still advance to the knock-outs, they will want to begin well against Spain on Friday. Co-incidentally, the sides faced each other twice in the Pro League just a few months ago (the Men in Blue conceded five goals over two games, losing one and drawing one). Get a good beginning against Spain and that will ease the nerves substantially.

One thing that may help or hinder the team — depending on who you speak to — is the crowd. The match between the two countries is expected to see record attendance for an FIH event (it's sold out) in recent times. Spain coach Max Caldas was of the opinion that they would prefer to focus on themselves and not on the crowd. Reid was more intimate when the question was put to him.

"It's a dual-edged sword to have such a great crowd with you," he said on Thursday. "I know from my playing days when Australia used to play Pakistan in front of 50000 people. The nice part about that was trying to keep the crowd silent. That's what the opposition is going to do. As far as pressure, for me, it is about staying in the moment. That's what we talk a lot about, staying focused, staying on the next thing..." But because opponents have had a lot of experience of playing in India in recent times, they have all developed alternate ways to tackle the wall of noise.

After completing a tour around India, the Cup was in Cuttack on Wednesday to coincide with the Opening Ceremony. If they want to get their hands on the real thing on January 29, the time to redress the defensive wrongs will have to start on Friday.

If not, with the World Cup moving out of India for the 2026 edition, they may not be able to have a parade, at least till 2030.