The Indian women's hockey team will not go to the Paris Olympics after losing to Japan 1-0 in the third-place playoff at the FIH Olympic qualifer in Ranchi on Friday evening. This is a huge blow for India, as they will not be able to follow up on their semifinal finish at the Tokyo Olympics.
Japan scored midway through the first quarter through Kana Urata's penalty corner conversion, and then defended deep and resolutely throughout the game, as India found no answers to their structure and organisation.
India had nine penalty corners, but didn't convert any of them. For the last three quarters, India also had all the possession and the territorial advantage, but just couldn't make it count with that goal, as Japan tested India's patience and came out on the positive side.
India started the game on the back foot in the first quarter, as it seemed like the physical and mental toll of Thursday night's semifinal shootout defeat to Germany had gotten the better of them.
Captain Savita Punia will also look back on the goal that India conceded, and maybe feel that she should've done better, as it went through her legs as she attempted to kick it away.
As the minutes went on, instead of there being a reliance on a plan, India were just hitting and hoping that a ball in the circle would fall their way. They snatched at their finishes, miscued hits inside the circle, and played like a team who were bogged down by the pressure.
Bizarrely, even as Japan were reduced to ten players after a late green card, Janneke Schopman didn't take her goalkeeper off to enable the team to play with an extra outfield player, when it clearly looked like the ten outfield players on the pitch didn't have an answer. Maybe an 11th could have found a solution just through sheer weight of numbers, especially when Japan had a body less to defend.
A teary end in Ranchi could well spell danger for Schopman's reign as India's coach, with Olympic qualification seeming like a bare minimum to achieve, after disappointing campaigns at the World Cup in 2022, and the Asian Games in 2023.
India had their moments in Ranchi this week, but in the clutch moments, they were found short, and one cannot grudge Japan's place in Paris, just for how they stuck to their game-plan, frustrated India, and eventually took the win in this one.
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