First things first! India has made it to the 2012 London Olympic Games. An 8-1 win over France in the final of the Olympic qualifiers tournament here at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium on Sunday has ended India's wait of nearly eight years to reach this ultimate stage. The victory also means that these new crop of players under Australian coach Michael Nobbs has finally arrived at the highest level.
Taking a cue from their earlier victory over this same French team, India's forward line combined well and did enough damage to the rival defence early on to take command.
The only grey area for India, their defence, looked in much better shape and did a pretty good job to keep France defenders at bay. The combination of Saravanjit Singh and Birendra Lakra fetched the hosts their first goal in the 17th minute when the latter directed a beautifully across pass to open the account.
Sandeep Singh took his drag-flick tally to a dozen when he converted India's second penalty corner in the 19th minute. Though there were few counterattacks from the French players, one of which they also converted to a goal in the 24th minute, Sandeep closed the chapter in the next 15 minutes by making it 3-1 at lemon break. Had Shivendra Singh not missed an open opportunity, India would have gone another goal up but that never really mattered in the final analysis.
Despite gaining the upper hand, the Indian forward line never gave any chance to their opponents by relentless attacks throughout the second half. And they kept enhancing the margin of victory through a flurry of penalty corners. SV Sunil and VR Raghunath were the only exceptions to score the 5th and 8th goal for India, otherwise it was Sandeep all the way.
And when the final whistle was blown, Sandeep's goal tally in the tournament had swelled to 16.
The huge 8-1 victory margin is a clear indication of how the Indians have worked hard and transformed themselves into 'world beaters' under Nobbs. Never before in the history of the country's hockey, had anyone seen India play with same aggression and speed even in the dying moments of the match. The entire credit surely goes to Nobbs for making them run and chase in small maddening spells.
The rolling substitution played a key role once again in the final, with Nobbs making more than 30 replacements during the course of 70 minutes.
“We didn't discuss any scoreline before the match. We only discussed that we'll apply a ruthless clinical approach against France and we did it,” said Nobbs. “This is a very special team for me. All the players are different characters and my job is just to guide and tell them their roles,” he added.
Man of the match Sandeep, however, disclosed that he waited till the tournament's final to showcase his variety of penalty corner variations. “I was not going all out till now. But today, I tried different variations and thankfully succeeded.”
For India, the agony of 2008 for not qualifying is behind. London beckons!
Stopwatch: India 8 (Birendra Lakra 17, Sandeep Singh 19, 26, 38, 49, 51, SV Sunil 43, VR Raghunath 56) bt France 1 (Simon Martin-Brisac 24)
