The Indian hockey team has been unpredictable here, swinging from the sublime to the ridiculous.
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India had gone into the Olympics banking on the unpredictability of the knock-out stage.
Argentina scored the goals through Martina Cavallero (2), skipper Carla Rebecchi, Maria Granatto and Agustina Albertarrio, in the second quarter. “Belgium took away the initiative and they deserved to win”, Oltmans told reporters.
The women conclude their pool stage on Saturday, with China, Spain, Argentina, India and Japan vying for the last two quarterfinal berths. Spain made it to the quarterfinals in Rio by coming from behind against South Korea and then holding on to win 3-2.
India’s six-time Grand Slam victor Sania Mirza and her partner Rohan Bopanna were blown away by Radek Stepanek and Lucie Hradceka (Czech) in the bronze medal Play-off in tennis mixed doubles.
So where did things go wrong?
Even as all nook and corners of India decked up to celebrate the 70th Independence Day on Monday, Indian athletes at Rio Olympics presented an indigestible Sunday much to the chagrin of sports-lovers who glued to TV sets to hear at least a piece of good news. Vittese scored midway through the third quarter, and the United States took a 1-0 lead into the fourth period.
Despite earning an early goal advantage in the match, courtesy of a Danish Mujtaba strike deflecting off Akashdeep Singh in the 15 minute, it was not long before familiar demons of inconsistency returned to haunt India.
While India did start on a positive note in the last quarter, they did concede the first penalty corner in the quarter. In nearly every match they have picked up acard or two. They also allowed the rivals to move the ball around and open up gaps in the defence.
Just before half-time, India conceded a penalty corner but goalkeeper PR Sreejesh made a brilliant save for India to maintain India’s lead.
The Indians lost the plot in the second session.
The Indians, who went went into the last 10 minutes of the game without a goalkeeper created a few chances, but they were never enough as the Belgians did well to kill off the clock and ultimately all Indian hopes. The Belgians used the flanks more effectively and switched the ball well. In the 22 minute, Sunil’s cross from the left flank missed Nikkin Thimmaiah by inches when a goal looked certain. But Belgium maintained pressure going and scored from a penalty corner with seconds left in the second quarter, Sebastian Dockier the scorer.
Maybe it was due to the conditions as it was a noon match and it tends to get quite hot during these times in Brazil. The highly experienced Belgium has won four of its five league matches, and had played the 2015 World Hockey League final against Australia. But on Sunday, they seemed drained at the start of the second half itself.
It wasn’t that the Indians played badly in the quarterfinal.
So, in the end India had little to gain from another wasted campaign in the Olympics.
This was India’s fourth consecutive defeat in the Pool B matches.
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Coach Roelant Oltmans felt that the lack of experience in the Indian team played a part in the loss.
