Express News Service
BHUBANESWAR: India’s tournament ended with the way it began: a defeat to France. There weren’t many similarities between the two defeats, though. The opener was an often chaotic match that could have gone any way. The fate of Sunday’s bronze-medal match, though, was fairly clear even before the hooter cut through the chilly December air to signal the end of the first quarter. An enterprising France were already all over the hosts like a rash. If Germany outdid Vivek Sagar Prasad & Co with their intensity and physicality, France simply beat them by being better in all phases of play and all areas of the pitch. They reacted quicker to opportunities, were alive to situations and, in the end, bossed India. It, however, has to be said that the Boys in Blue didn’t do much to counter that.
In age-group sport, it’s all about identifying weaknesses and learning from mistakes. Even if this is a good batch of players — several of them could be fast-tracked into the senior set-up before the World Cup in January 2023 — what will be concerning is how off the pace they have looked against Belgium (only a defensive masterclass prevented them from winning that game), Germany and, now, France. Sure, a lack of match-practice cost them dearly but they looked limp.
Disappointing forward line
There was no real urgency in midfield and both the defense and the forward line let themselves down by some poor decision-making. The goalkeeper did pull off some smart saves but the first rusher didn’t do his job all that well. As a result, France were able to chalk up as many as 14 short corners. The midfield didn’t really carry the ball all that well and the forwards again let themselves down. Sometimes, the best thing for an attacker to do is look for an opposition foot and take a penalty corner. That line of thinking hasn’t been aligned with what the Indian attackers have tried to do. And that’s even more ironic considering the penalty corner battery they have at their disposal.
On the few occasions when India managed to enter the striking circle, they opted to try to dribble their way past traffic to engineer shooting opportunities. Chief coach Graham Reid specifically addressed this issue after the game against Germany but the players didn’t learn from that experience. Numbers will illustrate this problem better: in the last three games, India have had five penalty corners from 58 circle penetrations.
In the same three games, their opponents have had 21 corners from 76 penetrations. To rub salt into the wounds, the forwards were tackled cleanly or lost possession before getting their shot away. In all the three knockout games, they have had only 15 shots on goal. To put that into context, France themselves had 15 while Germany had 14 and Belgium managed 11.
That has kind of been one of biggest issues for the hosts during the World Cup itself; attackers taking an extra touch or hanging onto the ball for an extra second to keep looking for extra options. At this level, that’s asking for trouble.
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