End of India's campaign in Men's hockey in the Rio Olympics. Going into the tournament, we were hopeful, being the runners up in the Champions Trophy held only a couple of months earlier.
India began well and played some good hockey. Well begun is half done and India soon cemented its position to go into the semifinals despite their narrow loss to the Germans and Dutch. Only in the last match with the minnows Canada, we showed some signs of struggle despite settling for a 2-2 draw.
Enter the knock out round, one knock and we are out. In hockey the Eurpoeans and Australians are known to adapt well under the circumstances, rising to the occasion when it matters.
India started well, drawing the first blood by going one goal up. But soon we faltered under pressure by uninterrupted Belgian blitzkrieg. Sreejith, our goalkeeper did his best to thwart numerous attacks, as the Belgians took possession of the ball more often.
A combo of factors worked against us today - Belgium playing better hockey, marking our star attackers like Sardar Singh, relentlessly putting our defence under pressure and our lack of big match attitude.
Hope what we learn from this Olympic defeat, using our lacunae and lessons from this loss to better our hockey for future. The skill and potential is there, it's a matter of developing that extra edge over the others. Otherwise, it will be the same old story repeating itself.
India began well and played some good hockey. Well begun is half done and India soon cemented its position to go into the semifinals despite their narrow loss to the Germans and Dutch. Only in the last match with the minnows Canada, we showed some signs of struggle despite settling for a 2-2 draw.
Enter the knock out round, one knock and we are out. In hockey the Eurpoeans and Australians are known to adapt well under the circumstances, rising to the occasion when it matters.
India started well, drawing the first blood by going one goal up. But soon we faltered under pressure by uninterrupted Belgian blitzkrieg. Sreejith, our goalkeeper did his best to thwart numerous attacks, as the Belgians took possession of the ball more often.
A combo of factors worked against us today - Belgium playing better hockey, marking our star attackers like Sardar Singh, relentlessly putting our defence under pressure and our lack of big match attitude.
Hope what we learn from this Olympic defeat, using our lacunae and lessons from this loss to better our hockey for future. The skill and potential is there, it's a matter of developing that extra edge over the others. Otherwise, it will be the same old story repeating itself.
No comments:
Post a Comment