Hockey: India among the favorites in Paris, but there are many problem areas, says Joaquim Carvalho

Mumbai, June 26 Indian hockey teams have always gone into the Olympics with great expectations. Over the past forty years, the team has had to live up to the gigantic legacy of eight gold medals that their colleagues have amassed since 1928 during the quadrennial spectacle.

Expectations for the men’s team have increased manifold since they won a historic bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics. That medal has whetted our appetite and now the fans not only expect them to win another medal, but want it to be gold or silver.

In Paris, India find themselves in a tough group with defending champions Belgium, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand and Ireland among the other teams. The first goal for the team is to finish in the top four and reach the quarter-finals.

With the Olympics just around a month away, IANS spoke to former India player and coach Joaquim Carvalho to take stock of the Indian men’s hockey team’s preparations and their chances in Paris.

Excerpts from an interview:

Q: The 2024 Olympics are now about 30 days away. What do you think of India’s chances in Paris?

A: As usual, India is one of the favorites at the Olympics, along with teams like Australia, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. But at the same time, I don’t rule out the other team’s chances. Nowadays, hockey has become so advanced, I would say, and so unpredictable that all teams competing in the Olympics have a chance at a podium finish. But that said, the contenders will, as usual, be Belgium, Australia, India, Germany and the Netherlands. I would judge them as they pick the final four.

I do not rule out that Spain, France, especially France, where the Olympic Games will take place, and who will participate in these Games, will be a much better team than a few years ago, because they finished on the podium. in the last two, three Junior World Cups. So there’s a mix of, you know, a lot of youngsters, seniors and players, and they had to be the dark horses for a podium finish overall.

Q: How do you see the preparations of the Indian team, how have they been going? Should they have done something more?

A: Look, India have all the preparations they could have asked for. They went to Australia to play a series and got a 5-0 defeat, which, you know, is not a good result and not a good preparation, I would say. Even though the coach (Craig Fulton) said they were going to analyze all their strengths and weaknesses and what it takes. But this was not expected from a top team like India, which is doing well. We have always found Australia very difficult to beat. but losing 5-0… And I think, you know, a few years ago, like in the 1970s and 1980s, this result would have caused a lot of fuss and howl across the country.

But now that the Indian team is doing quite well, the results in the major tournaments like the World Cup and the Olympics are not as expected. Even in the 2004 Pro League we had one of the worst finishes ever. In the last four seasons of the Pro League, India’s performances against the top teams have been very erratic and inconsistent.

We start very slowly, we concede early goals, then fight back, level the score and then lose the final plot. I think we need to work on that and try to be aware that this needs to be rectified and not, you know, ironed out in our process or our quest for the Olympic medal.

Q: Since the team won a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics, there are great expectations that they will improve the color of the medal in Paris. How realistic are these expectations? How difficult will it be for the players to deal with this pressure?

A: After a medal win, expectations are always high. But as I said, in today’s hockey there are so many teams in the dominant world hockey today that it is very difficult to predict whether you will definitely get a medal. And I would say that the Indian team is quite lacking in consistency. As for the other teams, they don’t go into depth about what they did and how they prepared, but based on the results, they peak at the right time. And their performance, as you can see, even in the Pro League was very, very good compared to the performance of the Indian team.

Whether you take Germany, Belgium or Great Britain, their performance in the Pro League, if you analyze it, they are on track for the Olympics. As far as the Indian team is concerned, and I have said this frequently, I would say that the team won a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics. But if you analyze the victory in Tokyo, in addition to the victory against Germany, we had a difficult time. Fortunately, the format has now changed so that if you don’t make it to the last four, you get a quarter-final. Previously you had to qualify for the top four, but now you have to qualify for the top four from your own pool/Group. Previously, teams had to qualify for the top two in their group.

The last four are now the last eight. So you still have a chance to get back in the game and you should have a chance to fight back. So there are plenty of opportunities here. In the quarterfinals, that particular team, whether it’s team A or team B, whether it’s the top seed or, you know, the bottom seed, they all have the opportunity to, you know, disrupt and create. history and beat them and then move on to the semi-finals. So that’s what we need to take advantage of and I think that’s where you know this format is not pro-India but I would say it’s very, very beneficial for India because the Indian hockey team always, as I said , inconsistent in its performance. So I hope this type of format is to their liking and is generally to their benefit.

The Pro League has highlighted defense as a concern, while scoring is also a problem area. What other areas do you think the team needs to work on?

A: Look, I said we have to avoid goals at crucial moments. We conceded early goals. The game has started and you have conceded a goal. Look, in the Pro League we only conceded goals in the beginning. And you put that on the backpedal and then you have to fight back to get the equalizer.

And then, you know, instead of dictating terms, you’re being dictated to by the opponent. The defense was also quite sloppy in their movements. And I would say that skipper Harmanpreet Singh is not what Harmanpreet was earlier a few years ago. I don’t know, maybe because they have it easy, or maybe because of the Pro League or so many games they have played.

But I hope he turns it around and tries to be a pillar of the Indian team because being in the middle, which I know was the plan, always left him wanting. Especially in the movements and the whole, the defense has not been as compact and tight as before, you know. And the offensive line also has to do well. They know that if the offensive line doesn’t perform well, there will be a lot of pressure on the defense. And that’s where we need to improve.

The front line has also had to deal with problems recently…

A: When I say that the attackers must do well, I am saying that they must score goals, that they must create chances, that they must also defend well, that they must close the gaps and that they must not allow the opponents build on the counterattack again. . So that’s true. If you don’t allow the opponents to build on the counter, it means you have to be very stable. Your attack must be very strong, compact and precise, resulting in a goal or a hit, but not a counter-attack.

So here I wouldn’t say that if the defense is not compact and your defense is slow, meaning they don’t defend well but also score goals, this is a major concern. Penalty corners are also a point of concern. The penalty corner conversion rate was not very satisfactory.

So this is where we also need to update our skills. When it comes to penalty corners, we just say we have to improve, we have to improve. But by the time we get better, the tournament is already over.

Before the tour of Australia, coach Craig Fulton had said: Before the tour of Australia, we will see what areas they are lacking, what areas we can improve and what are Australia’s strengths.

But they lost 5-0 in the end, which is a very, very bad score, a very, very bad result and that doesn’t bode well in the preparation. But I hope the Indian team does well and all these experiences they have gained in the Pro League and the Australian series take a backseat.

Q: What else does the team need to do?

They need to work on their weaknesses as well as their strengths and do well in the Olympics, where the first match against New Zealand will be a tough match. New Zealand can’t be taken lightly because they have two very experienced players, one of them is Simon Child — I think he’s playing his fourth Olympic Games. But New Zealand won’t be weak either because at the Olympics everyone comes to win and it’s a completely different game.

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