A day after India capitulated to Germany, the team management cancelled its scheduled training session on Tuesday. It first decided to have an in-camera practice in the morning before cancelling it altogether 10 minutes later.
The uncertainty was symptomatic of India’s problems on field at the Hockey World League Finals here. India is trying a system it is not used to, coach Sjoerd Marijne has relegated responsibility to the players to decide how they want to play and the net result has been a team seemingly in disarray.
Amidst all this, the team will take on a dominant Belgium in the quarterfinals on Wednesday hoping it will all come together at the crunch. Olympic silver medallist Belgium, along with Germany, has been the best team on display so far and remains unbeaten.
It has found a new hero in every game with Loick Luypaert leading the charge. It has conceded the least goals and scored the most.
Despite enjoying a better overall record — 45 wins, 17 losses and 10 draws in 72 games — India has been hopelessly outplayed in the last 15 face-offs against Belgium with 12 losses including in the last two outings.
Captain Manpreet Singh is one of the seniors but he too seems to be struggling. Rupinderpal Singh is still rusty on return from injury.
The juniors aren’t exactly wet behind the ears but have played like that. Someone like a Sardar Singh or P.R. Sreejesh is being sorely missed. “We respect Belgium but if you have to win tournaments and get to the top, you have to win against all teams. At the moment, we are trying to connect the dots and it’s taking some time. But believe me, this team will do it,” Marijne said.
For the team’s sake, one would hope the winning begins on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Spain earned a penalty stroke 90 seconds from time and ensure it wouldn’t be wasted, winning its final league match 2-1 against Argentina after trailing by a goal till the final 10 minutes to finish at second spot in Pool A and set up a quarterfinal match against defending champion Australia.
Table-topper Belgium remained unbeaten with a 3-0 win against Netherlands in the other game of the day.
The results (Pool A):
Spain 2 (Pau Quemada, Josep Romeu) bt Argentina 1 (Matias Paredes); Belgium 3 (Loick Luypaert 2, Tom Boon) bt the Netherlands 0.
Wednesday’s schedule (quarterfinals): Spain vs Australia (5.15 pm), India vs Belgium (7.30 pm).
