Hope in itself is a cure. And that is what Sjoerd Marijne meant when he said that the team will look closely at what they did against England, try and understand the errors and ensure that when India plays Germany on Monday, they would have been ironed out. There were expectations from the national team.
Coming on the heels of the 1-1 draw against Australia, the fans that packed themselves into the Kalinga Stadium would have been forgiven for hoping that India would have it easy and that they could watch a victorious team. But sport has a penchant to shock, surprise, frustrate; bring out a facet that even the most ardent critic wouldn’t have imagined, a display that would take them from ‘classy’ to ‘ugly.’
Before the Hockey World League Finals began, India coach Sjoerd Marijne spoke about counter-attacks, ball speed and the reason to give youngsters a chance and an opportunity to excel themselves on the big stage. After the 2-3 defeat to the English, Marijne explained the need for a chat and trying to understand what went wrong and why.
There are simplistic methods to figure out why things go so horribly off course but the problems could lie deep within the player psyche itself. If one blames the defence alone, that would be unfair. Even the midfield and the forward line didn’t apply themselves. One can hope that one quarter was off colour but to watch four quarters where India couldn’t come to terms with their inept display speaks more about the management than anything else. To be fair, it’s way too early to red-line issues, errors and gaping inadequacies. But can one look the other way?
Marijne was right when he said there is a distance between winning the Asian Championship and trying to fight on level terms with the top four in the world. But they did against Australia, the second ranked team in the world. It is necessary to understand that England won the 2017 Azlan Shah by beating Australia in the final. And they are one of the semi-finalists at the 2014 World Cup. So, rankings are fine when doing pre-match analysis. But once the match begins, rankings are like loose change.
India’s defensive wall of Harmanpreet Singh, Varun Kumar, Rupinder Pal Singh, Birendra Lakra, Dipsan Tirkey and Amit Rohidas was meant to be up to the task. Surender Kumar had been dropped and so was Sardar Singh. The voices said they were rested. But rested in the HWL Finals!
The question is not of one bad match. It’s about four quarters where India wasn’t outplayed; they dug themselves into a grave. A dip in form is understandable but in a sport where rolling substitution can give you a buffer, why are defenders failing one after the other. Birendra Lakra looks like he needs more time. He is slow and that uncanny feel of understanding another player way up on the turf seems to have deserted him. He looks more a player making up the numbers.
Horrifying is the fact that Harmanpreet, the calm one, actually made that error which created the second goal for England. At 2-0, India seemed down and out. But don’t look at the equaliser and how India came back to snatch a 2-2 score with 10 minutes to play for. Even after Chikte had taken off some time to fix his pads ensuring that the team gets its breath back, India still made absolutely foolish errors. The bigger question is whether there is a way out of this mess?
Let’s assume that India beat Germany, but it won’t take away the feeling that India has issues in its defence line and also on how to stop the counter attacks. Marijne didn’t have much to say in defence of his team. But he went along and explained the reasons which all seemed a bit clichéd. Marijne wants to work on consistency. But how do you do that without explaining the rotation that didn’t happen in the defence? How do you explain it to Mandeep Singh that controlling the ball is more important than just trying to dazzle with it? How do you tell Sunil that sprinting with the ball and then running into empty space and finally losing the ball and momentum doesn’t do anything for the team? Maybe, someone needs to tell Marijne that consistency is one factor but how do you get rid of habits that are beyond consistency. Luck lasts only that long.
After the 1-1 draw against Australia, Marijne had a spark in his eyes. Today, there was a harried look of a man who hadn’t kept a contingency plan. Can things be resurrected? It’s slightly difficult at this point of time for a team that had to keep Amit Rohidas away in the 4th quarter. When asked what was most frustrating about the defeat to England, Manpreet replied: “There were too many errors and we need to fix that.”
“But it was not only about defence,” Marijne said. “The speed of the game at the start was not good enough. We held the ball too long and kept giving away turn-overs. We really need to work on our consistency. For me the big question is why we dropped from our yesterday’s level. That’s what we need to talk about because if you have reasons you can improve.” Everything is linked with confidence and if Marijne can instill it in them, then the nightmare, one hopes, won’t be repeated.
