23-year-old Karmakar could make Indian gymnastics history in vault final on Sunday
Canada came close to upsetting India in their last pool match and it was no surprise. I have experienced such situations in my playing career and it's extremely frustrating when a lowly placed team does not give you the space. A fancy, slow paced game does not exist anymore in modern hockey. Quick movements is the name of the game.
Many expected the Indian team to win this match considering Canada had not won a single game in the tournament so far. But it was never going to be easy. Quick tackling and the ability to close down the opponent's movements was a good ploy adopted by the Canadians. Canada played their hearts out, threw themselves at everything and deserved a 2-2 draw.
To add to India's misery, we once again faced temporary suspensions and then SV Sunil was out of action after getting injured and being carried out on a stretcher. I hope the injury is not too serious as he's been in reasonably good form and has created quite a few goal-scoring opportunities in the matches gone by.
Akashdeep Singh, Ramandeep Singh and Nikkin Thimmiah had some chances in front of goal but the Canadians defended very well. Finally , Ramandeep and Akashdeep got their names on the scorersheet by converting the chances that came their way. Ramandeep's delicate deflection of a long searching pass from V Raghunath was a beauty.
As I mentioned in my earlier column, our forwards need to put in that extra effort to get goals. One such move by the Canadians nearly fetched them a goal in the third quarter when their forward threw himself from a distance at a pass across the goal line, which unfortunately touched a part of his body before the ball entered the goal.
The new format in this Olympics has given India another crack for a podium finish, in spite of not finishing among the top two in the pool. In the past Olympics, only the two top teams moved in to the semi-finals. In this format four teams from each of the two pools enter the quarter-finals.
Now that, India have crossed their first hurdle and moved into the knock out stage, they must make the best of it. There will be no second opportunity.
India play Belgium in the quarter-finals and though the Belgians have made rapid strides up the ranks in world hockey, they are definitely beatable by this skillful Indian outfit.
I expect the Indians to have practised the shootout well in case the scenario arises at the end of a possible draw in full time next up.
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