India off to a great start

Indervir Grewal

Tribune News Service 

Lucknow, December 8 

As the mercury fell drastically on the opening day of the junior hockey World Cup, the Indian team singed the floodlit blue turf at the Dhyan Chand stadium here today. The hosts picked apart Canada with fast and bullying hockey to start their campaign with an emphatic 4-0 win.

Facing a defensive Canada — which manager Roelant Oltmans later said that he wasn’t surprised to see —India used speed and variation to break down their opponents. India took some time to get going but as soon as they found their rhythm, they were fluent, with a lot of short, slick passes.

As Canada defended very deep, the whole team behind the defensive third on occasions, India kept shifting their point of attack to break down the Canadian defence. One of the most impressive aspects of India’s performance was the way many of the players had flexible roles, hovering at different positions. The fact that they could do that showcases the players’ all-round abilities.

However, despite the chances, India were kept out thanks to the efforts of the Canadian goalkeeper. As the wait for that crucial first goal got longer, India grew impatient and instead of playing their normal fast game started hurrying — clear signs of nerves. They needed to slow down; and as the game fell into a short lull and the crowd, which came in considerable numbers, fell silent, India regained their composure. The crowd woke up from that lull with a loud gasp as Parvinder Singh’s deflection hit the post. India’s luck finally changed as Mandeep Singh shot home their first goal after a goalmouth scramble right at the end of the first half. The goal eased the nerves and a very different, very dominant, India entered the field in the second half. Looking to turn the screws, India pushed forward in numbers to form an inescapable net around the Canadian defensive third. They were not even able to get the ball to their forwards for long stretches. After about 10 minutes of holding on, Canada wilted under the constant pressure.

India missed many penalty corners before one, taken by Varun Kumar, got them a penalty stroke. Harmanpreet Singh converted it in the 46th minute. Kumar got his goal from another penalty corner in 60th minute. Ajit Pandey made it 4-0 after deflecting in Manpreet’s bouncy shot at goal. Mandeep, who was named the Man of the Match, could have increased the margin as he missed two chances.

Format flip-flop

At a time when international hockey has moved on to the four-quarter format, it was surprising to see junior World Cup matches being played in the old format of two halves of 35 minutes each. The reason, as explained by an FIH official, was that the qualifying tournaments had followed the same format. England coach Jon Bleby was critical of the decision, saying personally he preferred the four-quarter format as there should be consistency at the junior and senior level. Spain’s goalkeeper, who was named the Man of the Match in his team’s 2-1 loss to Germany, said it was a bit uncomfortable to shift between the two formats as everywhere else the new format is being followed.