India Need To Cross First Hurdle

The long-awaited men's hockey competition in the Athens Olympics will start tomorrow and as usual the top contenderswill be holders Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Pakistan, India and Spain.

But among these top six countries, Germany seem to be strong contenders for gold as they are slightly better prepared for the huge challenge coupled with the presence of many senior players in their ranks.

The Dutch will also be trying hard to wrest the title as another gold will help them match India's envious record of ahat-trick of golds at the Olympics.

Australia, one of the top teams in the world for several years, are surprisingly yet to win a gold at the Olympics
though they have been very positive in their approach. Among the other countries, India, Pakistan and Spain seem to havegood chances of making it to the semi-final stage.

As far as India's prospects are concerned, undoubtedly they have been placed inPool B which is relatively easy when compared to the other. The new-look Indian team was announced last month at Dusseldorf along with the announcement of appointment of two German coaches, supported by Olympian Jagbir Singh and guided by special goalkeepingcoach Frank Leictre of the Netherlands.

How far these new coaches prove successful, only coming days will tell. May be the time given to these coaches is notsufficient, but I feel the Indian players definitely would have adjusted to the new system of coaching in the shortperiod.

We have struggled in goalkeeping in recent times. India's No.1 keeper Davesh Chauhan has had a lean period in all therecent tournaments but he must have improved under the new specialist coach.

The skill of second goalkeeper at the senior level, Adrian D'Souza, has to be judged. I think this area will be the most important factor which will determine India's results to a great extent. With a new penalty corner rule in force,keeping has assumed all the more importance.

Our deep-defender and captain Dilip Tirkey will be playing his third Olympics and he can expect good support fromjunior players like William Xalco and Harpal Singh. Though the youngsters are agile and flexible, the chief responsibility will be on Tirkey at this high level of competition.

In the mid-field, all the five players will be playing their first Olympics and most of them have not beenperforming at their best in the recent tournaments. If Vikram Pillay, Ignace Tirkey, Viren Rasquinha, Sandeep Singh and ArjunHallappa play to their potential, India can go a long way.

I still fail to understand how the talented and experienced Baljit Saini was not included in the 16. His presence in the mid-field would have been a great help to the largely inexperienced players. 

India's forward line seems to be the best equipped among all the 12 teams in fray. The experience of Dhanraj Pillay andBaljit Dhillon complement the youth in Gagan Ajit Singh, Deepak Takur and Prabhjot Singh. All these five forwards attheir best can eliminate any defence. The Indian team would depend heavily on the forward line to deliver the goods.

The most important game for India will be their opener against the Netherlands. Statistically, in recent times we are yetto beat the Dutch in any high level competition, a record that the Netherlands would draw confidence from.

But the extensive training in the build-up to the Games should come handy when we face the Netherlands. We have alwaystried hard against Holland but somehow towards the end, we concede one or two goals to lose the match.

The main area where India have to focus will be the long passes, man-to-man marking and unforced errors which lead tous conceding easy penalty corners. If all these areas are handled well, there is no way India will lose against Dutch.

The Netherlands are very strong in penalty corner conversion having strong flickers like Taeka Takima and Bram Lomans whohave proved to be match winners many a time.

If India cross the first hurdle, we can be sure of making it to the semi-finals. Even if we share points with the Dutch,it would be a morale boosting display ahead of India's next four games. As things stand, we can always salvage threepoints from New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina.

For the Indian team, it will be a great honour to lock horns with the Dutch on Independence Day. If the Indians pulloff a win, they would cherish it for the rest of their lives.

PTI