Playing in front of a near-capacity home crowd, the Germans, ranked higher than the Indians and favourites to pick full points from the game, were unexpectedly under pressure till the 69th minute, as India bounced back after being in twice arrears. But with a minute to go they snatched the match-winner through Christopher Zeller to win 3-2.
Call it bad luck or poor strategy, once again Indians succumbed in the dying moments of the game.
Every coach shouts himself hoarse for ball possession in such situations. But if the players are unable to hold their nerve what can he do. It has happened time and again when our players have tried to ease the pressure by sending the ball into the other half, under the wrong impression that they are playing time.
Over the years they have still not realized that on astro turf it needs as many as 3-4 touches from the opposing half, and less than 15 seconds, for a goal to be scored.
Both teams had their chances. And, as all major tournaments are decided by those crucial penalty-corner conversions, it was Germany's cent percent record (2 out of 2) in the set-piece situation that played an important role in their victory.
India's goalkeeper Adrian D'Souza will be upset by the manner in which he conceded the first penalty-corner goal, as the ball whizzed past him quite close to his body. But the second short corner was a very well-executed one. The Germans seemed to have sensed that Adrian would rush out all the way and sold a superb double dummy that foxed the entire Indian defence.
But coach Bhaskaran's boys must be given full credit for the manner in which they fought back into the game. Surely, India deserved at least a point from it
Shivender Singh, the wiry lad from Mumbai, is improving with every international tournament. He showed good opportunism to first score off a rebound, following a melee first, and then came up with a class second goal after combining well with Tushar Khandekar.
Viren Risquinha, the other Mumbai lad, stood out too with clever interceptions and passes. In the defence, captain Dilip Tirkey and Prabodh Tirkey gave a good account of themselves, but the same cannot be said of right midfielder V S Vinaya, who is capable of much better. Probably, it was team strategy to hold Vinaya from supporting the forward line in attack, as he tends to forget his role as defender thus leaving huge gaps in the defence.
Gagan Ajit ,Tejbir Singh and Arjun Hallappa will have to work a little harder to make an impact. These senior players must realize the importance of moving away from their markers to try and get maximum possession of the ball.
India plays England on Thursday in their second league match. It will be interesting to watch what tactics the coach adopts. My guess is that he will ask the boys to be on the offensive from the word go. He has fresh legs in Rajpal Singh and Hari Prasad, two able players on the bench. Both were used sparingly in their game against Germany.
India is ranked above England and expected to win the match on the basis of their bench strength. Ignace Tirkey, Hari Prasad and Rajpal have a vital role to play for India to get those valuable three points. I wont be surprised if the think-tank will gamble with young, and not very experienced, Nitin Kumar.
Another thought in passing is the temporary suspension of Kanwalpreet. Having had to play with ten men for nearly ten minutes is something the team will have to address. These are all unnecessary lapses that can prove costly.
Mervyn Fernandis represented India at the 1980, '84 and '88 Olympics. He also captained India at the junior World Cup in Versailles, France, in 1979.
