Can Indian hockey end its 36-year wait for a medal at Rio?

“An Olympic hockey gold medal at last,” wrote K Datta in the Times of India describing the Indian men’s hockey team’s triumph in the 1980 Olympics. A 16-year wait for an Olympic gold medal had ended in Moscow, and Horst Wein, the German coach of the Spain team that lost to India in the final, said that the gold medal would help India return to the top position in the world hockey. But little did anyone predict that it would be the start of another downslide that would dwarf the previous. On Friday, the Indian men’s hockey team ended their 36-year-old knockout jinx that has bugged them since the heroics of Vasudevan Baskaran and co. But can they win a medal at Rio?

Also read: Can the hockey team prove Viren Rasquinha happily wrong at the Olympics?

Once the draw came out, a place in the quarter-final looked a real possibility. Although the group had defending champions Germany, 2012 Olympics silver medallists Netherlands, and 2014 World Cup third-place winners and Pan American champions Argentina, India just needed to beat Ireland and Canada for a place in the last-8. The change in format surely increased Sreejesh and team’s chances, but the ghosts from London still haunted them.

Roelant Oltmans’ side counter-attacked and used the pace of SV Sunil and co. to trouble the German defence, while they pressed high up the pitch to stall the German attacks. We saw a resolute defence from India, for the first time in many years, and the Germans knew that they had a match on their hands. As it turned out, a lucky last-minute winner helped the defending champions edge past India for a victory. But, it was clear that Indian hockey was back where it truly belonged.

However, there are still some chinks that needed to ironed out before we begin saying the word medals in anything but hushed tones. Although the defence has improved, India’s attacking prowess has taken a hit in the tournament. The team has scored only seven goals so far in this tournament, and six of them have come from penalty corners. After four matches, India is second last in terms of goals scored in their group and is behind Ireland, who have scored eight. When it comes to penalty corners, India have scored six goals from 21 opportunities. That is one goal in 3.5 penalty corners, and against Netherlands India wasted a total of eight opportunities, finding the goal in only one. With the penalty corner specialists – Rupinder Pal Singh and VR Raghunath – leading the scoring chart, and with the forwards yet to open their account, India would need a much-better performance from the drag-flickers to move up in the tournament.

Former skipper Sardar Singh’s new role as a forward also did not seem to be working for Roelant Oltmans’ side with the veteran player finding it difficult to assert his presence on the game. Sardar Singh was moved from the midfield to the forward line because of his tendency to slow down the game, and with India employing a counter-attacking strategy, the former captain is now doing the same to the forward line.

Another concern for coach Oltmans before the quarters will be India’s tendency to concede in the last quarter. Although they have only conceded seven goals in total in the four group matches, four of them have come in the last fifteen. A goal in the dying minutes also snatched away a point from India in the game against Germany, and the men in blue will have to improve on their performance in the last quarter to go ahead in the tournament.

If the standings remain the same in both groups, India would run into Spain, who have scored 12 goals and conceded five in their four group games, in the quarters. Although Spain is ranked six places below India in the rankings, the Europeans had the better result in the recent meetings between the two countries. India lost 1-4 and 2-3 in the two friendly matches played against Spain just before the Olympics, and in the Six Nations Tournament in Valencia in June, both teams drew 1-1.

It is clear that, if India are to return with a medal from Rio, they will have to improve on their performances and add more goals to their game to defeat teams like Netherlands and Germany. After the failures of 2008 and 2012, a quarter-final spot seems like a dream come true, but a medal at Rio will go a long way in propelling India to a place among the big guns in World hockey - A place they truly deserve after dominating the sport in the past. 

Also, read: How the 1976 Olympics changed Hockey and how HIL's new rule could take India back to its glory