Rio de Janeiro: A disjointed India’s Olympic hockey medal hopes went up in smokes as they went down 1-3 to Belgium in the quarter final here.
India’s wait for the elusive Olympic hockey medal got extended for another four years as P.Sreejesh’s boys were found wanting against fast and agile Belgians.
Head coach Roelant Oltmans was at pains to explain the reason for defeats> According to him The energy level of Belgium was very high. We didn't bring in the quality that we brought in London (at the Champion s Trophy in June). For the boys there's was a lot of stress and pressure. Belgium took away the initiative and they deserved to win,"
"You have to see where we come from. We have the youngest team in the competition and for most of them this is their first kind of experience. You do need experience to win this level of game."
"When it comes to quarter finals, it's a do or die match and that's where we need to improve. We are happy that the team could reach the quarter finals, but the team we have had the potential of going higher. It's bad for us and I am disappointed." Oltmans said.
He further added “We played with full pressure, but full pressure, I always say, is a kind of bluff. There are always gaps. Later in the game, we tried to put full pressure and even took out the goalkeeper,"
"We tried to close the gaps and tried a number of attacks, but in the third quarter we hardly saw any attacks at all. That's where we have been lacking,".
"After taking out the goalkeeper in the end, we didn't concede a goal but neither did we get goal scoring opportunities. We had only one or two opportunities and a break from the corner, but we didn't succeed
It was India who took the lead through Akashdeep Singh in the 14th minute as the supporters in stands started celebrating and discussing about the opponent in the semi finals.
The Belgians had other plans they waited for he chances and once they got it they pumped in three in one go leaving no quarters for the Indians to stage come backj
Striker Sebastian Dockeier struck twice and Tom Boon struck once in Belgium’s winning campaign.
Dockier drew parity for Belgium in the 34th minute. And then 11 minutes later scored his and side’s second goal to put Belgium ahead.
Five minutes later Tom Boon scored a field goal to make it 3-1 – to leave the Indian challenge in total disarray and tatters,
As the game opened both the teams went after each other aggressively and Belgium's quick and attacking play kept the Indians guarded.
In the final minute of the first quarter, India took the surprising lead as V.R. Raghunath drilled a long ball 25 yards out straight at the Belgium goal through the middle and Akashdeep deflected the ball on the right post. The ball touched the left leg of goalkeeper Vincent Vanasch before entering the cage.
Belgium hit back in the third and penultimate quarter and managed to score two goals through Dockier.
As second quarter started, Sreejesh again came to India's rescue as he blocked a drive from forward Thomas Briels.
Belgium made barrage of attacks and in one of them, Sebastian Dockier scored a peach of a solo goal as he dodged past at least three defenders to push the ball past Sreejesh's outstretched right leg in the 34th minute.
Penalty corner specialist Tom Boon tested Sreejesh but the Indian showed fine skills by diving to his right and deny Belgium the lead in the 44th minute.
Belgium got the lead one minute later when Cedric Charlier crossed from the left and Dockier dived forward superbly to deflect the ball in.
Belgium then further confirmed their strong position in the game when Boon scored a field goal from the top of the circle i to put his side comfortably ahead .
Captain Sreejesh also admitted that the team lacked the energy needed to win a crunch quarter-final.
"We needed to show more team unity and energy after the first goal. We need to improve that and we need to see these matches as do or die matches," he said.
"The game can change till the last moment in hockey, so it's more important till the end how we concentrate and try to get a lead. In the second half they took away the initiative and they got enough penalty corners. We could have put more pressure and availed more chances, but our energy was not up to the mark," the ace goalkeeper added.
(The writer is a senior sports journalist)