A nervy India squandered a one-goal advantage as they allowed Canada to stage a fightback with a late strike and earn a 2-2 draw in their final men’s hockey pool game of the Rio Olympics Games here today.
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India, who have already qualified for the last eight, thus ended the group phase with two wins, two losses and a draw, accumulating seven points in the process.
In a tepid first quarter, US and India played out a slug fest in the midfield, both reliant on long balls for circle penetrations into the others territory.
India were the team who had the ball in the net first in the second quarter, Rani dribbling and twisting away brilliantly from multiple USA defenders in the circle, before unleashing a reverse into the goal. It wasn’t until the end of the first quarter that Bam scored the first of her two goals on the first shot of the night for either team. Belgium will be no pushovers as they look to continue their impressive run having won four and lost just one game so far in the tournament.
Later, India did their best to find the victor but Canada defended desperately to walk out with a deserving 2-2 draw.
Las Leonas had a shaky start in pool play but continued to fight for a top spot in the standings.
But India’s joy was shotlived as seconds later Tupper equalised for Canada, converting their first penalty corner.
Belgium have risen in the ranks over the past decade and are rated as one of the most feared teams in world hockey for their attacking style of play. With striker SV Sunil’s injury – and possible absence from the line-up – being a nagging worry for the Indians, the dragflicking duo of Rupinder Pal Singh and VR Raghunath continue to be the cynosure in the camp ahead of the quarter-finals. “We just lost the focus, and we got together yesterday and we talked about that, and the focus is back, hopefully”.
Rickie Fowler said earlier in the week that with four Americans in the field – no other country has more than two – they could sweep the podium.
Tupper, a defender, and veteran midfielder Mark Pearson of Tsawwassen, B.C., were competing in the Summer Olympics for a second time, after being a part of the last Canadian field hockey team that represented Canada at the 2008 Beijing Games.
They played for the gold medal at the 2012 London Games, and were predicted to repeat that in Rio de Janeiro, but Argentina surprisingly struggled in its pool, losing to the United States and Britain, and scrambled to beat Australia 1-0 on Thursday to stay in the medal hunt. Had they beaten Canada they could’ve faced Spain, a waning hockey powerhouse, who they had beaten here in Rio during a practice game.
The match was played yesterday. “But the scan did not show anything which means he is fit to play”, captain P.R. Sreejesh said of his deputy, who plays a crucial role as the leader of the attack.
However, the good news for the Indians was that they held their own even against big teams like the Dutch and Germany.
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“We have achieved the first target; entered the quart-final stage”, Sreejesh said, on the eve of their knockout match against Belgium.
