A good tactical move by Cedric D'Souza was to rest Pargat Singh for the match. Young Dilip Tirkey was played instead, with Pargat coming in only for penalty corners.

What India was looking for was to post a tennis score in this game. Argentina had slammed in 5 goals against this same US team, all goals having come in the first half. India, with dangerous forwards like Dhanraj Pillai, Mukesh Kumar and Sabu Varkey, had to go all out for a morale boosting victory.

For a change, India scored in the first half. Ramandeep Singh opened the account with a penalty stroke in the 10th minute. This had come off a penalty corner which an American defender stopped with his foot. This was to be India's only success with penalty corners, all others going to waste.

The second goal was a beauty from Dhanraj Pillai. Mukesh Kumar weaved circles around two American defenders and backpassed to Dhanraj. Dhanraj was caught on his reverse, with no time to turn around. With his back to the goal, Dhanraj hit a glorious reverse scoop that hit the upper corner of the net. Dhanraj walked away majestically without looking back. He knew he had the goal keeper beaten all ends up.

After the sides crossed over, Dhanraj scored yet again, this time off an assist by Sanjeev Kumar. In the D, Sanjeev passed through two defenders and found Dhanraj on the right. Dhanraj drew out the diving goal keeper and pushed into the empty goal.

India went on the rampage late in the game, desperately looking to add to its tally. With one minute left in the game, the left wing at last redeemed itself. A tear-away move saw Gavin Ferreira in the D. He gave a slight body feint to the right to fox the goal keeper, and pushed the ball to his left for Sanjeev Kumar to complete the formalities. The goodly crowd of 5000 enjoyed this high scoring game.

India made a mess of their penalty corners yet again. Their indirect conversion are especially awful with the players never being in position. 3 matches have gone by without India scoring a single goal off a penalty corner. One wonders whether the long hours spent during the training camp on penalty corners has paid off at all.

The midfield was guilty of holding on to the ball and ultimately losing possession. Very rarely did one see a first-time pass. They have to remember that it is more of a team game rather than a display of flashy individual skills. The US forwards were slow, and hence could not take advantage of faulty passes or steals, but this will certainly not be the case with the remaining teams in Pool A.

India has got a yellow card in every game so far, with Gavin, Mukesh Kumar and Anil Aldrin all sitting out for 5 - 7 minutes so far. India needs all 11 men to do duty for their country in the much awaited clash with Pakistan. The huge expatriate crowd is sure to get its money's worth in this humdinger of a match. The expectations on both sides is very high. May the better team win. May the game of hockey win. May the Olympic spirit win.