In their Road to Atlanta, India and Pakistan had met twice in the recent months. They had a 2-2 draw at this same venue two months back, while the earlier result was a 5-2 thrashing administered by India on Pakistan in the SAF Games in Madras in December 1995 - the biggest margin of victory by India over Pakistan. But the Pakistan that India would be facing today was like a wounded tiger, having lost its previous two games badly, and waiting to fight back.
Going into the game, Germany had beaten Argentina 3-0. Spain had USA to play in a later match. A loss to any team in this crucial India - Pakistan encounter would leave them fighting for the 9 - 12 places. A draw would eliminate Pakistan, and leave India with only a mathematical chance for making it. A full house of 20,000 fans packed the Morris Brown College Ground to watch the grim battle for survival between India and Pakistan.
India dominated the proceedings early in the match and forced a penalty corner. Anil Aldrin hit a rasping shot that went to the left of the sprawled goalkeeper and hit the nets. However, the goal was disallowed since the rule in hockey is that a direct hit cannot rise above the 18 inch height of the board.
Pakistan repeated the same feat later on, with their penalty corner goal also being disallowed. However, it did cause a few Indian hearts to miss a beat, and a Paksitani fan to run onto the field. At the end of the first half, Pakistan had earned two penalty corners to India's one, but the exchanges were even, with a lot of attacks and counter attacks from either side.
India seem to start off the second half on a lethargic note. The Pakistani forwards were swarming all over the Indian 25 yard line. Yet again, India played with 10 men on the field for a period of time. This time it was the turn of Mohammed Riaz to get a yellow card. Coach Cedric was forced to substitute forward Mukesh Kumar with center half Rahul, and adopt a defensive strategy till India got back to its full strength.
Full marks go to the superb Pakistan front line, who moved about on the field like a well planned battle formation. The forward who got the ball would always look for a first time pass to a better positioned forward. While the Pakistani forwards had excellent periphery vision, the Indian forwards lacked in cohesion, being guilty of frequent bad passes, or losing possession of the ball.
Ramandeep Singh played his heart out for India in the defence, foiling many a Pakistan move. Pakistan's strategy of crowding out Dhanraj Pillai worked, for rarely did he get an open access to the goal. With a drawn result looming large, things got slightly rough towards the end. Dhanraj got tripped down near the Pakistan 25 yard line, while Gavin was stick checked in the eye. Those were glitches in the otherwise fine display of attacking hockey played at a furious pace.
The capacity crowd enjoyed the clean, attacking, end to end game of subcontinental hockey. Scalpers had sold tickets for upto 5 times the ticket price, but the diehard fans didn't seem to mind. There were painted faces galore in the audience, flags were being waved, there was a continuous drone of audience support for the moves of the players. A 0-0 result was a fair ending to a pleasing game of hockey.
Both India and Germany suffered upset losses in their opening games. While India has ended up with 4 points from 4 games, with only one victory over USA to its credit, Germany has gone from strength to strength beating their opposition by convincing margins. This is a good example of a team peaking in time for the semi-finals, while India is still struggling for victories.
In the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, India converted 2 out of 29 penalty corners for a miserable 7% success percentage. With only one match left to go in Pool A, India has yet to score off a penalty corner. In the 1.5 seconds it takes from the time the ball is pushed till the ball hits the net, the fate of a match can be decided. Europe has developed the penalty corner as an art form. That is why we have Spain and Germany topping Pool A, with India and Pakistan fighting for the crumbs.
Unless USA pulls off some heroics against the pool leaders Spain and Germany, India's chances look bleak. However, India has only itself to be blamed. A semi-final spot in the Olympics has to be earned on merit, and not because of the largesse doled out by others. India has now only her pride to play for, in the last pool match against Spain.