India vs Germany: A semi-final with a lot on the line
A win will seal their spot in Paris 2024 but a loss will consign them to a nervous wait
The first review discussion that Janneke Schopman had after India’s surprise opening defeat to USA in the FIH Women's Hockey Olympic Qualifiers here was with Peter Haberl, the team’s mental conditioning coach. The team found itself stuck, the two told the players with an accompanying question: “how do we now get unstuck?”
The players slept over that thought, and freed themselves of the hole with wins over New Zealand and Italy. That unlocking, however, would count for little if the Indian women's hockey team does not seal a 2024 Paris Olympics entry over the next two days.
First up are world No. 5 Germany in the semi-finals on Thursday. There could be no second if sixth-ranked hosts get the job done against the 2016 Olympic bronze medallists and enter the final. If they don’t, a straight shootoff for the third and last Paris spot between the losing semi-finalist of USA-Japan beckons on Friday. It will be a high-stakes, all-or-nothing zone in which India have often floundered of late and where they’d rather not venture.
“It’s a semi-final, but it's kind of a final," Schopman said. “Hopefully we need only one final to qualify... but maybe we need two.”
That India find themselves in this slightly more complex situation is down to the 1-0 loss to USA, which pushed them to second in Pool B for a clash with the Germans and not Japan, a team they’ve beaten twice in the last six months.
India played Germany in a warm-up match here and in a competitive game last month in the 5-Nations tournament in Valencia, where India lost 1-3. Their two Pro League encounters in 2022 produced 1-1 draws.
“I think we put up a good performance in that (Valencia) match,” India captain and goalkeeper Savita Punia said here on Wednesday. “It wasn't like we were only defending. We also had shots on goal, penalty corner (PC) attacks. We will look at that match and analyse what we could've done better. All we need is some self-belief, which we have developed match by match here.”
Also developing match by match here have been Germany. A 3-0 win against Chile was followed by a 1-1 draw with Japan before a Germany-like 10-0 Czech Republic rout. Coach Valentin Altenburg felt they have progressively learnt from each game, where all teams were “sitting very deep” against them.
Japan coach Jude Menezes believed playing an open game against Germany would've killed them, and so their focus was entirely on defence. A 45th-minute PC goal earned Japan a point after Germany, who had 15 PCs, had gone ahead.
Schopman reckoned they will have to be defensively solid, in the one-on-one situations and in their PC defence, against Germany. But that won’t mean shying away from their signature attacking play.
“Germany loves to have the ball. If there's one thing that is important for us, it is to pressure them well. And then when we have the ball, keep the ball and threaten them a bit,” Schopman said.
The start will be crucial. It has defined how India — they scored within the opening minute against New Zealand and Italy — have played the rest of the match. The early goal against Italy, after which India took 40 minutes to score again, though bothered the coach.
"Maybe the early goal hurt us a little. We knew a draw was enough (to qualify for the semis), and maybe half of our team thought, ‘Oooh, now we can still concede a goal and be through’,” Schopman said.
Any such thought could prove risky on Thursday, leaving it to an all-or-nothing Friday date.