Having just returned from a heartbreaking semi-final loss to Malaysia at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, India’s senior-most player Arjun Halappa is back to what he does the best -- play Hockey.
Arjun, who is playing in the national tournaments now and was in the Capital to participate in Shastri Hockey, said that the semifinal loss against Malaysia was a shock to all the team members and they still can’t believe what had happened in the extra-time. “Nothing went wrong you know. We were playing great hockey, but it’s tough to even think of what happened in those six minutes. It seemed we just lost concentration and lost the game in those minutes. Frankly speaking, we did not want to be in that situation. So just being there was what hurt us and before we could come out of that, Malaysia struck. It was really heartbreaking,” said Arjun.
While speaking about the kind of hockey the team displayed, Arjun minced no words in saying that this was probably the best hockey displayed in the last couple of years. “See whatever I say now will be seen as an excuse. Yeah I know we have lost to Australia by a huge margin at the CWG finals and minnows Malaysia beat us more recently, but if we look at the kind of hockey we have played, I can say that this team has played its best hockey of late. We beat the other best sides of Asian Games -- Pakistan and Korea and beat them like we looked like beating them. So overall the team has displayed good hockey on the turf. We were the best side of the tournament, and it’s unfortunate we didn’t win,” said the veteran.
Arjun though wanted to stay away from the recent controversies that erupted when the foreign coach and captain spoke against each other after coming back, he said that had there been differences and things wouldn’t have looked so good on the field. “See whatever each of them spoke, I can’t comment on that. I can just say that had there been differences during the games, you wouldn’t have seen such cohesiveness on the ground as was quite visible. Had the coach and the captain not seen eye-to-eye, they wouldn’t have done so good together as a team.”
“In fact I would say that it is the joint effort of both the national (Harendra Singh) and the foreign coach (ios5e Brasa) that has delivered. Both of them have worked real hard with all of us and we have been together for two years now and this has helped. As far as picking between a national and foreign coach is concerned, I would say it would be better for the federation to decide that. Whatever both the coaches and the captain have spoken are their words and I can’t comment on any of it,” said Halappa.
Though the qualifiers are still 14-months away, Arjun says that there would be a little pressure playing those games as it would be important to win and qualify especially after the bad loss last time. He though opined that since India will play in home conditions, that would be advantageous. “It would be pressure playing those again. Had we won the Gold at Guangzhou, this wouldn’t have happened. But since we have to play now, let’s get it straight, we are going to go all out and are quite sure of making it this time.
Moreover we will be playing qualifiers on home turf, so that adds to our advantage this time around and if we play same kind of hockey that we have displayed off-late, I am sure we will make it to London comfortably,” concluded the senior-most India player.
By Rohit Sakunia
