Tokyo 2020: Indian women’s hockey team fail to seize their moments in Olympic Games
The Indian women’s national hockey team found itself in a dangerous position in the group standings, and it has only two rounds of matches left to play.
What surprised their fans was not so much the inability of the team to pick up points, but the fact they created a lot of their own troubles by not taking the chances that came their way and letting go of the initiative at crucial stages.
After a disciplined and consistent string of performances over the last three years, the girls seem to have lost their way on the biggest stage of all – with ardent supporters arguing that fate may have played its hand as well.
The remarkable journey that began in Donghae hits a rocky road in TokyoLess than two weeks after taking charge of the Indian women’s team for the second time, coach Sjoerd Marijne watched as the Indian girls thrashed Japan 4-1 in Donghae. Marijne joined the team in Korea while Analytical Coach Eric Wonink prepared the girls for the 2018 Asian Champions Trophy after Harendra Singh had been shifted to coach the Men’s Team.
It was the beginning of a momentous journey as the girls won silver in Donghae without their inspirational captain Rani Rampal by their side. The Indian girls travelled to Spain where they drew the 5 match series 1-1.
The best was yet to come, as Rani and co. held hosts England and the USA en route to an unlikely World Cup quarterfinal spot the same year.
The World Cup dream ended tragically in a shootout loss to eventual silver-medalists Ireland but the girls made their mark on the world stage for the first time ever.
Although the team failed to reestablish their continental superiority by losing to Japan in the Asian Games final, a dramatic win against the USA in the Olympic qualifiers erased all memories of the Jakarta defeat.
The next big event on the list for a team that was not part of the Hockey Pro League happened to be Tokyo Olympics which was preceded by many a successful tour.
It wasn’t without reason that the expectations before Tokyo Olympics were overly raised – blame coach Sjoerd Marijne and the girls for having created the aura themselves with a series of great performances.
For a team that finished 12th in the Rio Olympics, making it to a World Cup quarterfinal and climbing the rungs to become Asia’s highest ranked-side ahead of traditional powerhouses South Korea, Japan, and China was no mean achievement.
The first big setback for the girls was not being part of the 2019 Hockey Pro League – although the coach himself harped on the benefits of the break which he said would give the girls time to prepare for the all-important qualifiers.
With the qualifiers done and dusted and with a ticket to Tokyo Olympics in hand, the girls prepared for a tour to China in late 2019 that never happened thanks to the Coronavirus outbreak there.
Marijne sought to play down the expectations ahead of the Games citing a lack of game time, but it may be argued the Australian men’s team, which is in prime form in Tokyo Olympics, also saw no international action for well over a year and only got to play neighbours New Zealand before travelling to Tokyo.
How then are the Kookaburras in sublime form after having prepared behind closed doors with no international action for 15 months? Are Indians more overawed by the Games more than athletes from other nations because of the weight of expectations?
Scorelines that do not reflect what transpired on the pitchQuestions outnumber answers as one wonders how the ever-dependable Gurjit Kaur missed a penalty stroke against Germany even as Vandana’s shot hit the crossbar ahead of the 0-2 defeat.
With a bit of luck, the Indians may well have drawn the game against a powerful German side and with points in the bag, may have done so against Great Britain as well.
Despite trailing 1-2 the Indian eves were on the right track and in search of a likely equalizer when Salima Tete got herself into trouble for an avoidable tackle and left the field, allowing GB to score a third and nail the contest by the end of the third quarter with the final scorecard reading 1-4 .
The Indians failed to seize their chances at crucial moments which has now led to a situation where they will need to win their last two games by huge margins and also hope that other results go in their favour as the Netherlands and Germany have already qualified for the knock-outs from Group A and Great Britain are well-positioned to so as well.
The Dutch have done the Indians a favour by thrashing South Africa 5-0 which means the Indians have moved up to the fifth position but the fight for the fourth quarterfinal slot will, in all likelihood, be with the Irish girls who have a current goal difference of -4 as compared to the Indians are at -9.
The writing is on the wall but miracles have been known to happen and the Indians will be hoping that they find their scoring touch against Ireland and South Africa – in the hope that Great Britain manages to beat Ireland in their last group match encounter.
