Paris, Aug 7: A heart-wrenching defeat in the semifinals, notwithstanding, a demoralised Indian men’s hockey team will have to regroup quickly and aim for a second consecutive podium finish at the Olympics when it takes on Spain in the bronze medal play-off here on Thursday.
The Indians played bravely against Germany, putting their defence under pressure from the start and in the process took the lead in the seventh minute through a penalty corner conversion by skipper Harmanpreet Singh.But the Germans came back strongly in the second quarter and fourth quarters to secure the close win, courtesy some silly defensive lapses from the Indians, especially Jarmanpret Singh.The Indians too were guilty of wasting too many scoring chances, including as many as 10 penalty corners, while converting two, one directly and another through variation.The opposition teams seemed to have found out a way to deny one of the world’s best drag-flicker Harmanpreet as he managed to be on target just once on Tuesday.The over-reliance on Harmanpreet and lack of innovative penalty corner variations seemed to be hurting India badly. But the return of Amit Rohidas, who missed Tuesday’s match after being shown the red card against Great Britain in the quarterfinal, should bolster the Indian defence and also give more chances from penalty corners as he is second best option from set pieces after Harmanpreet. (PTI)
