Hockey World Cup: India go down 2-5 against Spain

India’s jaded effort against Spain gave little hope to fans of seeing another spirited effort in the FIH Hero Honda World Cup. They lost the plot early on, were outplayed in virtually every department, and failed to lift themselves out of the depths of despair as their hopes of qualifying for the semifinals came crashing down.

The home team might have played a dream opening match against Pakistan, but the identical 2-5 losses to Australia and now Spain, leave them with the possibility of fighting it out for the lower half as the championship progresses. If the match against Australia had tested their nerves, it was simply a case of not coming up to the mark in front of a jam-packed Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium here on Thursday.

With two losses in three matches and an outing to go against group leaders England, they might not be technically out of reckoning for a place in the last four, but with England having notched up three wins, Australia running up a huge goal average advantage in two wins and Spain keeping their nose ahead of India on the points table, the writing is on the wall.

“We are not in the reckoning for the semifinals any more, but would like to fight it out for the fifth place. We had a bad game today. We made some silly mistakes and paid the price for it,” said India’s Spanish coach Jose Brasa. Spain’s first strike through Albert Sala with a surge down the centre rocked the Indian boat and captain Pol Amat put the Beijing Olympic finalists 2-0 ahead by the break. The first session saw a shaky defence with even the consistent Dhananjay Mahadik unable to instill confidence, not to forget Sandeep Singh.

India’s hopes got a boost when Sandeep converted a penalty-corner early on resumption. But Pau Quemada and Roc Oliva once again seized the initiative to put Spain 4-1 ahead, seizing the chances when India failed to do anything once inside the ‘D’. Gurwinder Singh Chandi finally got a goal in his third match, when he did not struggle as much as before, but the same could not be said for fellow forward Deepak Thakur. If Thakur was sloppy, Prabhjot Singh could not pierce the defence-line like he would have liked to. That was also because he was marked well.

Neither were there enough first-timers from inside the circle nor the deft flicks inside when the ball hovered around the goalmouth, and India were left groping close to the goal.

There were a few penalty-corners that came India’s way, but it was Quemeda’s second goal that stubbed the last hopes of a miracle in the dying minutes when he completed the eventual score-line. “I think the crucial mistake was when Pol Amat was left unmarked and we conceded the second goal. That was a bad let-off that had a bearing on the final result,” said Brasa about the 35th minute slip-up. “Our penalty-corner conversions were very bad,” Brasa said.