Mumbai: At the beginning, there was hope. They needed to win by at least two goals. And there was a stirring pep talk by captain Harmanpreet Singh in the team huddle.
At the Wagener Stadium in Amstelveen, with a potential spot in the Men’s Hockey World Cup semi-final on the line, India were outplayed and outfought in a 3-5 defeat to Argentina. India had not won a World Cup title since their one and only triumph in 1975. The challenge to end that 51-year wait saw the world No.8 team fail to win any of the three matches against higher-ranked opponents – losing each match against No.4 England, No.1 Netherlands, and No.7 Argentina by a margin of two goals. India conceded 16 goals across the five matches played so far (the consolation classification match will be played on Friday). Of those, 12 were field goals. For comparison, India scored five field goals from their 14 in total.
With it, ended a campaign that had more moments of despair than praise. Alarmingly though, there were defensive frailties on display throughout the tournament. To get to the semi-final, India needed to win by at least two goals and hope the Dutch beat England in the match later in the evening. Yet, Argentina came off the blocks quickly. Tomas Domene carried the ball into the shooting circle from the right flank and played a square pass across the goal. The unmarked Joaquin Toscani, stationed near the far post, collected and slotted past HS Mohith in the Indian goal. Leading by four goals though, Argentina’s intensity dropped in the final few minutes which allowed India to make a few late charges towards goal. Sukhjeet got his second goal of the match after a clever deflection from a pass Mandeep Singh smashed into the circle. And then in the final minute of play, Hardik Singh converted a penalty stroke to reduce the deficit to two.
