Outplayed and outclassed by the sheer precision and pace generated by the youthful Dutch side, India succumbed to a humiliating 3-6 defeat in the BDO Masters hockey championship at the Ulhenhorster HC on Friday.
Nothing illustrated the pathetic state of the Indian team more than the scoreline. Clearly, the selectors' policy of resting the seniors and blooding youngsters proved a fiasco if the show of the newcomers was anything to go by.
With the handful of seniors not touching their expected level of proficiency the team slumped before the consistency and craft of the Dutchmen.
If the margin had remained 1-4 at half-time, it was largely on account of the good work in the deep by Sardar Singh. Throughout, he played his heart out to contain the Dutch sequence of moves. But the rest of the defenders were unequal to the task. From the start, the Dutch had everything rolling well for them. Quick passing and proper positioning helped the attack to escalate pressure by the minute. Bob de Voogd at the right with Rogeer Hofman subjugated the defenders quickly. When de Voogd slotted in the first goal off a cross from Verga it clearly indicated the dominance of the Dutch.
A slack defensive formation led to the second goal which saw Robbert Kemperman increasing the lead. India looked back in the fight when Mahadik hit in a penalty corner — Sandeep Singh was not on the field at that point — but the joy proved evanescent. Jeroen Hertzberger tapped in a cross from Hofman followed by another goal by Klaas Vermeulen.
Despite a marginal improvement in the second half by the Indians, the Dutch dominance continued. A clean hit by Sandeep Singh from a penalty corner raised hopes but the Dutch paid India back in the same coin when Mink slammed in a penalty corner.
An agonising miss by Khandekar — his reverse flick off a Ravi Pal pass was off target — was followed by goal by Ravipal after a bout of passing with Dharamvir Singh. However in the closing minutes, Netherlands scored the sixth goal through Constantine Jonker.
Breaking the imposed silence by his employers back home, Jose Brasa, chief coach, turned up for the post match press conference. He had no qualms in acknowledging that the team conceded far too many errors in the first half.
“We did not play well today,” he said emphatically. He also did not mince words about his disagreement with the selectors for resting two important players, Vikram Pillay and Arjun Halappa. “The selectors have the power decide who should come,” he added.
Predictably jubilant, Paul van Ass, who had eight of his junior players-he was also the chief coach of the junior team in the last World Cup-was confident that the majority here would graduate to the forthcoming Champions Trophy. He said there were five senior players back home, but he would make identify only three for the Champions Trophy. “I want to put pressure on everybody,” he said.
Japan gave definite indications of its growing stature in the continent. That it scored twice to hold the former World champion Germany in the first half was proof enough of the intelligent and imaginative approach of the squad. In fact, it was Japan which went into the lead through a neat deflection from the right. Hiroki Sakamoto was bang on the spot to meet the pass and flick it in much to the chagrin of the German defenders.
But Christopher Zeller proved shortly why he is acknowledged as one of the best strikers in the world. He converted two penalty corners in succession to put Germany ahead and went on to complete the hat-trick. By half-time however, Japan had the honours shared with Tsubouchi scoring the leveler.
In the second half, the Germans had properly assessed the strength of the rivals right and struck three goals, including the third and hat-trick of Zeller who broke the deadlock.
Osker Deecke and Christioph Menke then enlarged the margin but in the final minutes Kenji Kitazato narrowed the leeway.
The results: Germany 5 (Christopher Zeller 3, hat-trick, Osker Deecke, Christoph Menke) bt Japan 3 ( Hiroki Sakamoto, Kazuhiro Tsubouchi, Kenji Kitazato).
Netherlands 6 (de Voogd, Robbert Kemperman, Jeroen Hertzburger, Klaas Vermeulen, Mink van der Weerden, Constantine Jonker) bt India 3 (Mahadik, Sandeep Singh, Ravipal).
Saturday's matches: Netherlands v Japan (5-30 p.m.); India v Germany (8 p.m.).
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