Paris: Having displayed nerves of steel to be within touching distance of a second successive Olympic medal, the Indian hockey team will fancy its chances against familiar foe and reigning world champion Germany in the semifinal of the ongoing Games, hoping to better the bronze that it claimed in the Tokyo edition.
India won last of their eight Olympic gold medals way back in the 1980 Moscow Games. Paris provides them a great opportunity to make history.
A semifinal win will ensure a silver for India, which they last won in the 1960 Rome edition. The Indians displayed a tenacious performance against Britain in the quarterfinal at the iconic Yves-du-Manoir Stadium on Sunday.
Playing with 10 men for close to 40 minutes after Amit Rohidas was shown a red card for unintentionally hitting rival forward Will Calnan on his face, the Harmanpreet Singh-led side defended stoutly to hold Britain 1-1 in regulation time and force a shoot-out, where it emerged 4-2 winner.
Veteran goalkeeper P R Sreejesh, playing his last international tournament, seemed to have saved his best for the last leg of his career as he made save after save, including two in the shoot-out, to seal India’s second consecutive Olympic semifinal spot.
It was one of the bravest performances from the Indians as in modern day hockey, to play and win with a man down is a Herculean task.
And come Tuesday, Harmanpreet and his men would not only look to better the colour of their Tokyo medal but would also want to give a befitting farewell gift to the talismanic Sreejesh who will walk into the sunset after the Paris Games.
Nicknamed ‘The Great Wall of Indian hockey’, Sreejesh has been phenomenal in the Games so far, standing like a warrior in front of the post and enjoying every moment of his last hurrah at the Olympics.
Against Britain, Sreejesh made 10 spectacular saves from field shots. If that was not enough, he kept out 10 penalty corners.
“When I stepped on this field today (Sunday), there were two options for me. This can be my last match, or I got an opportunity for two more matches and I think, yeah, I got two more matches now,” Sreejesh said later.
“See, whoever comes in the semis, we (will) just play our game. That’s it, that’s important, because now it’s a different game, because we are one man down and we need to focus on that now.”
But it won’t be easy for the Indians as key defender and first rusher Amit Rohidas has been suspended from the semifinal match after receiving a contentious red card against Britain, a decision which Hockey India has appealed.
Rohidas’ absence will also weaken India’s options from penalty corners as he has been second to Harmanpreet from set pieces and the entire responsibility will now rest on the skipper.
“Now, these things are not in our control. While it is a setback to not have Amit on the pitch for the semis, we are focused on the task at hand,” said Harmanpreet, who has been India’s leading scorer at the Games with seven goals.
“On Sunday, what stood out in our performance was the team’s ability to take on the added responsibility of a key position that Amit played. Every player stepped up and even until the last minute, we were fighting back.”
Going by world ranking and recent head-to-head record, there is hardly anything to differentiate between current world champions and four-time Olympic gold medallists Germany from India.
While Germany are ranked fourth in the world, the Indians are a rung below.
Germany, who beat Argentina 3-2 in the quarterfinal, are familiar opponents for India in high-stakes tournaments, the most famous being the bronze medal match in Tokyo where India registered a thrilling 5-4 win, thanks a stunning last-second save by Sreejesh.
In the days leading up to the Paris Games, India had played Germany in practice matches and the Harmanpreet-led side won five out of those six contests.
India’s most recent contests against Germany were in the FIH Pro League’s London leg in June this year, where they defeated the Honamas 3-0 before losing 2-3 in the return tie.
“We wanted to play Germany in the final. At least, that was what we had discussed amongst ourselves during team meetings ahead of the Olympic Games.
“They are challenging opponents and when we play against them, the match usually goes down till the last second,” said Harmanpreet.
In the other semifinal, Netherlands will quare off against Spain.
