I write this blog with extreme difficulty. It's been a pathetic feeling since India lost to Malaysia.
Over the lunch on the semi-final day, a colleague asked me, "Will it be a tuft one for India?".
I replied, "India may sail through but it will not be so simple. Malaysia is an upcoming team. However, the final against Korea will surely be tuft nut to crack". I didn't know it the unimaginable is about to happen.
As I switched on the television, it showed the Korea v Pakistan was into Penalty Strokes. Few minutes later, Pakistan emerged victorious. I wondered, whenever there are 2 favorites for any final and one of them go out, it is usually followed by the second one, too. The match started in just a bit and I didn't spend too much time on thinking about it.
Indians were struggling right from the word 'go'. Malaysian strategy was simple. Strict defensive and only counter-attacks. They made it so difficult for Indians to penetrate the circle that it became a boring game. Mostly the ball just travelling all with over the field with very little gush of energy in the game.
India couldn't penetrate and Malaysia didn't attack on their own. Usual game - Defend, steal the ball, counter-attack and then come back again to defense - went on till Malaysia succeeded in their counter-attack to go up 1-0 in the 32nd minute. Yet again, there was no one to blame but Indian defense. Malaysians were too fast for them.
India pumped in quite a bit of energy after this. Danish Mujtaba got a PC for India. India grabbed this opportunity with both hands. They leveled the score 1-1, thanks to Sandeep Singh's accurate drag flick. Indian players must have had a hard time at the lemon break because the game till now was anything but convincing.
India took an early lead in the 2nd half as Tushar Khandkar scored in the 38th minute but Indian happiness didn't last for long as Malaysia got a PC in the 48th minute. This goal by Malaysia was class apart more for the fact that Malaysians had the confidence of taking an indirect PC. A quick back pass to the pusher and he just had to deflect it. Indian fans could only bite their nails seeing the impertinence of the Malaysians.
Indians had became very aggressive and when they got the next PC in the 54th minutes, Dhananjay Mahadik took the drag flick. His flick was easily stopped by the Malaysian Goalkeeper Subramanian but the ball remained there in front of him. Rajpal hounded on that opportunity and put India again into the lead. The scoreline read 3-2.
With 3 minutes to spare, Malaysia got a PC which they converted and this was the most paragraph of Indian demise story. Scores leveled 3-3, Indians tried as harder. They got an important Penalty Corner but Sandeep Singh was out because of injury. India threw away this chance, thanks to Dhananjay Mahadik, who failed to even make a proper contact to pump in some acceleration into that flick.
Full time and when the score line read 3-3, Malaysians had won half the battle. They thrived on their confidence and within 6minutes they sealed India's fate by scoring on a PC.
Indian performance was on the decline right from the word 'go'. With lesser mistakes against Pakistan, India had started showing signs of poor performers against Japan. Today was just another episode in the declining performance.
Malaysia made a very well deserving entry into the semi-finals of Guangzhou Asian Games 2010. Who knows what they are gonna do to Pakistan in the finals. As the Malaysian coach, Stephen van Huizen, said, "We started as underdogs and we still are underdogs in the finals."
India, now has to find their way to the London Olympics 2010 via some qualifiers in early 2012.
Another sad portion for India is that their loss comes at a time, when coach Jose Brasa's fate was loosely hanging on India's Asian Games performance. India out in the semi-finals is sure-shot disappointment for millions of Indian Hockey fans. The officials were anyway keen on not renewing Brasa's contract with Indian Hockey. No matter how much Indian Hockey has evolved, they have a reason, which they can easily justify, to execute their plans and start off with the saga of non-contract coaches, yet again.
The interesting portion is, as Indian Hockey has evolved, so has happened to Malaysia and Pakistan as well. Even though there is huge improvement in the way Indians have played in the recent tournaments under their Spanish coach, you have to count the fact that Pakistan has a Dutch coach and Malaysia has a American coach. It's all about technology, strategy and innovation.
If at all, India thinks of replacing their coach, it should be another foreign coach and not someone who is dear to the officials. I hope we take a conscious and a calculated decision.
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