After having come through an encounter forever to remember against Great Britain in the quarter finals, India is faced with the daunting task of defeating World Cup champions Germany in the semifinals on Tuesday to move into the gold medal-deciding match in the Paris Olympic Games here.
Eight-time champions India, who showed great courage, energy and fortitude to outlast Britain yesterday with only ten men on the field for 43 minutes in the 60-minute quarterfinal encounter, had defeated four-time gold medalists Germany in the previous Games in Tokyo to garner a bronze medal, their first of any hue in more than 40 years.
However, India need to play out of their skin once again to get past the doughty and physically intimidating Germany in order to fight for the men’s hockey gold for the first time since the boycott-hit 1980 Moscow Games.
It was an extraordinary effort by India to put it across Britain after Amit Rohidas was ejected from play in the 17th minute with a red card. He won’t be available for tomorrow’s game and captain Harmanpreet Singh will have only 15 men under his command.
The nerve-wracking penalty shootout victory over Britain, after the two teams were tied 1-1 at full time, gives India the extra confidence to cross swords with Germany, who last won the men’s hockey gold in 2012 at London.
Germany, ranked number two by the world hockey body FIH as compared to the fifth rank held by India, also had a tough time in getting past Argentina 3-2 in the last quarter final held last evening.
In the ultimate analysis it will depend on how fast the two team’s players recover for the second semifinal which is scheduled at 7 pm local time following the first all-European one between The Netherlands and Spain which is slated to begin at 2 pm.
India have depended a lot on Harmanpreet with his expertise in converting penalty corners, sharp shooter Abhishek and veteran custodian Parattu Ravindran Sreejesh to come this far in the competition.
Harmanpreet has scored four penalty corner goals besides showing his penchant in taking penalty strokes through which he has found the mark on three occasions.
Abhishek has been the main prowler around the rival team’s goal area and fired in two field goals while Sreejesh has come up with a heroic display to stop multiple shots with his positioning sense, sharp reflexes and self-confidence.
These three players would once again be the cynosure against Germany with adequate and timely support from the other players.
Competition stats show that India have made 100 circle penetrations and notched up eleven goals (shootout goals not included). a figure which they certainly would like to improve upon.
India would be wary of Germany’s penalty corner expert Gonzalo Peillat who switched nationalities after guiding Argentina to a surprise gold medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Peillat who has scored two penalty corner goals and one field goal so far, modest by his lofty standards, but remains one of the danger men for India. Harmanpreet and company have conceded eight goals so far.
Incidentally Peillat scored the all-important goal that fired Germany past his old country yesterday.
The Germans will also be wary of India as indicated by their forward Christopher Ruhr.
“India is going to be hell of a game. I mean, they got the red card and worked their way through to the shootout, which is extraordinary,” said Ruhr about the upcoming semifinal match against India at the conclusion of the Germany-Argentina game.