Hockey World League Seminal: Eves face the Dutch with Rio Olympics in mind

By V Krishnaswamy

The men have already booked their berth and the women have an outside chance of making it to Rio Olympics next year for the Olympic hockey competition. While the men have missed just one Olympic Games (in 2008) since 1928, the women have played just one before – in the truncated Olympic hockey field in 1980 in Moscow.

So, there was little pressure on the men but they did want to use this event to get a good look at all possible opponents in Rio. For the women it’s all about the Rio berth. As the quarter-finals line up stands, India men will fancy their chances against Malaysia, despite losing to them at Azlan Shah but the women will just hope to limit the scoring spree of the World No.1 Dutch girls.

A look at the teams suggests both men and women have a similar problem – defence and penalty corner conversion. Then, there is also the question of nerves and getting into the rhythm faster, most conspicuous while playing teams of a higher caliber and fitness.

As the men’s coach, Paul Van Ass, the Dutchman, said after the match against Australia, which India lost 2-6, “We gave away far too much in the early part of the game. We had to get used to the higher rhythm of the game. It all comes down to the game and nerves and we didn’t play well. It was only after half time that the nerves got better and the game was better.

There are lessons to be learnt,” he added. His final punchline: “Australia are No. 1 and we are No. 9 and that’s not without a reason.”

Sardar Singh concurred, saying, “We played too defensive and our reactions were slow. We wanted to play the same way as we did in Azlan Shah (against Australia, where India won), but we were not able to.” A day earlier, the coach of the women’s Mathias Ahrens had said. “We gave away too many penalty corners and easy goals.

Also, we are caught off guard when we go all out and we fail to contain the counters.” He was referring to the 10 penalty corners India conceded against Australia while losing 2-4. The cupboard is bare for the women’s team when it comes to the penalty corners.

“We don’t have a drag-flicker for penalty corners. I did notice a good dragflicker in the training camp (among the under-21) ahead of the tournament, but it was too early for her skills to be pushed into top grade international hockey,” Ahrens said.