By Prabhjot Singh | France |
India fought well but lost its battle for the gold medal in the hockey competition at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Missing two sitters in the last few seconds, India went down to the World Cup champions Germany 2-3 in a pulsating game of absorbing hockey.
Germans made full use of their chances. They got only four penalty corners against 11 from India. Gonzalo Peillat, who had earlier represented Argentina, was the toast of Germany’s win. It was a strategic move as in earlier games, the German team did not use him much for penalty corner conversions. The move worked as Indian team management probably was clueless on defending his killer drag flicks.
Germany and the Netherlands play for the Olympic hockey crown after a gap of 12 years. They last played the gold medal match in the 2012 London Olympic Games. Germany had won 2-1.
Playing without its dependable defender and drag-flicker Amit Rohidas, India fought gallantly and narrowly missed to repeat the heroics it had displayed in the quarterfinal game against Great Britain. India had won against Great Britain on Sunday but lost the services of Amit Rohidas in the semi-final.
The International Hockey Federation had earlier rejected India’s protest against the award of a red card to Amit Rohidas in the 17th minute of the first quarterfinal. His suspension was extended to the semi-final. India must have felt the need to include a third deep defender after it landed in a piquant situation following the two-match suspension of Amit Rohidas.
India had named Jugraj Singh among the reserves after another deep defender and drag-flicker Varun Kumar had to leave the camp even before the time was finalised. Former Indian captain Manpreet Singh was brought back to deep defence to man Amit’s position.
Putting behind the agony of playing with 15 players – no substitution is permitted for the suspended player – India did try to match its opponents in every department of the game. It dominated the proceedings, earned more penalty corners, and had more shots at the German goal, but the finish witnessed in earlier games was somewhat conspicuously missing.
Of the 11 penalty corners it earned, India could utilise only two. Skipper Harmanpreet was under pressure as his choice to ask someone else to take penalty corners was limited. He gave India a good start by converting the sixth penalty corner.
The Indian joy was, however, short-lived as Gonzalo Peillat restored the parity from the first penalty corner Germany got in the 18th minute. Four minutes before the teams could break for an interval, Gonzalo Peillat struck again. This time he found Jarmanpreet’s foot on the goal line.
Rueher Christopher made no mistake from the resultant penalty stroke to put Germany ahead 2-1.
India did not have to wait for long to restore parity. Four minutes into the second half, when it earned its 11th penalty corner, Sukhjeet Singh made no mistake from the rebound of the initial shot taken by Harmanpreet.
Committing the mistake of falling back to defend its citadel in the fourth and final quarter with a probable plan of forcing the game to a penalty shootout, India started living dangerously in the fourth and final quarter. Germans were shrewder and more strategic than Britons as they made full use of the chance. With just four minutes remaining, a free ball from the left flank saw Marco Miltau sliding it past Sreejesh for the crucial match-deciding goal.
Two minutes before the final whistle, Sreejesh was withdrawn. In the 59th minute, India survived a penalty corner without him. It had two fine-field scoring chances in the last 15-20 seconds. Since luck was not in its favour, both Sukhjit and Shamsher failed to make use of these chances. Shamsher sent the ball high over the crosspiece just before the hooter sounded the end of the game.
India will now play Spain for the bronze medal on Thursday.
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Olympics 2024: 10-men India beats Britain to enter semi-finals (Asia Samachar, 4 Aug 2024)
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