London: Signalling the distance they have covered as a team in the four years since their last place finish at the Olympics, India pushed Germany to the limit to split the points in a pulsating 3-3 draw in the opening game of the Champions Trophy, here on Friday.
It was the Germans who started strong and won their first PC of the match in the 2nd minute. India’s defence rallied together and set a pattern that one would see repeated over the course of the game. VR Raghunath, charged with the duties of a first runner, blocked the flick on the run denying the defending champions the lead.
That quick start infused life into India. They started showing more urgency and intent, forcing the Germans back on every attack. Through concise incisive passing India started breaking down Germany’s renowned defence each time they launched a counter. The first chance fell to Talwinder after a brilliant bit of skill from Mandeep left him with a chance to fire in the opener. Tobias Walter, in Germany’s goal came off the line quickly and blocked the shot to deny India the lead.
The pressure paid off soon enough though. A professional foul on Chinglensana just outside the area won India their first PC of the game and from the flick, Raghunath, returning into the team after a break did not disappoint. A hard push, at an uncomfortable height beat the goalkeeper as India took the lead in the 7th minute.
Two minutes later, India showed their defensive resilience, discomforting Germany, first Surender clearing off the line, before PR Sreejesh, pulled off a sharp save to ensure his team kept the lead at the end of the quarter.
It would be a pattern that would be repeated throughout the match. India’s defence played a compact formation constantly defending in numbers, and behind them Sreejesh pulled off successive saves to keep them in the game.
Encouragingly for India, their sharp passing and superb attacking movement kept finding spaces around the German midfield. The purpose in their play yielded them several chances in the second quarter. First, Sunil found the back of the net, only for the decision to go against him for an illegal touch while controlling the pass. Soon after Timm Herzbruch forced Sreejesh into another sharp save and it seemed like there would be no openings into the Indian goal today.
The clean sheet would be broken though, as Tomas Grambusch pulled Germany level via a PC in the 26th minute.
Almost off the restart though, came India’s moment of genius, provided, almost singlehandedly by SV Sunil, who ran through two defenders, and crossed back from the baseline to find Mandeep Singh—who deftly snuck in behind the German defence to score and restore India’s lead. India went into half time leading the game by the thinnest of margins.
The crowd, made up of several Indians who had turned up to watch a tight, close encounter were soon surprised, as India came out of the break and quickly earned their third PC of the match. Raghunath, who had scored one and shot wide off another was joined in the twin battery by Harmanpreet Singh, in his debut Champions Trophy game. Harmanpreet received the pass, and made the shot hard and true into the bottom left corner to double India’s lead. Four minutes laterthough, Grambusch scored another goal off another PC to reduce the gap to 3-2. Despite twice being penalised to 10 men, India held on strong defensively as they went into the final break with the lead and a chance to upset the defending champions apple cart.
The final quarter belonged to Sreejesh as he pulled off save after save to deny Germany any share of the points. The best of the lot was a superb steal off Moritz Rothlander as the latter faced him one on one in the circle—a sure shot to score. Chances flew both ways though, as India missed a sure shot winner with Mandeep shooting wide with eight minutes to go. A minute later, Walter dived smartly to his right to deny Raghunath a second off India’s 4 PC of the game.
With three minutes left, Germany won a PC after a Grambusch PC struck Pardeep Mor on the chest while he was defending on the line. From the resulting stroke, Jonas Gomoll scored to ensure the teams split the points from the opening encounter.
Speaking after the match, Chief Coach Roelant Oltmans said, “We played a strong game, defensively as well as in the opponent’s half and controlled a large part of the first half. The key now will be to work on ensuring we have a better accuracy and completion rate with the final pass, a trick we were guilty of missing today.”
India take on Great Britain in their second Pool encounter on June 11, at 20:30 IST.
The FIH Champions Trophy is broadcast Live on Star Sports 2 and HD 2.
Courtesy: http://hockeyindia.org/
