Harmanpreet Singh walked over to PR Sreejesh. Sat on his now trademark perch atop an Olympic goalpost, the greatest goalkeeper the nation has seen was enjoying the adulation of fans and colleagues alike as India celebrated their first back-to-back Olympic medal in 52 years. Beckoning him down, Harmanpreet bent his knee and asked Sreejesh to clamber on and, as if it was nothing, lifted the big keeper on his broad shoulders and carried him around for a half-lap of honour.
For years Sreejesh had carried the team on his back -- the everlasting memory of Tokyo will be him pulling off save after stunning save in the dying moments of the bronze medal match -- but now it was the team's turn.
And - with due to respect to the other players - Harmanpreet Singh is the team.
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Where Tokyo was about Sreejesh, the one picture that will come to mind when you think of Paris will be Harmanpreet Singh, crouching low, obliterating ball into goal - ten times, to be precise. The specifics of it don't matter much -- against whom, where the ball went. What you'll remember is the aura of calm authority as he takes it, sound of the ball thudding into the backboard inside the goal, the massive bicep straining that captain's armband as he clenches a fist in celebration.
Over the past year, the big man has bent this team to his will. Then he came and bent the Paris Olympic Games to his skill.
That this is Harmanpreet's team is borne out by the numbers. In Tokyo 2021, India had 11 different goalscorers with different names coming up clutch as the situations demanded it. In Paris 2024, India had five. Three of them scored one goal each, another two. Harmanpreet scored 10. Two-thirds of India's goals came from their skipper.
◾ Winner against NZ
◾ Equaliser against ARG
◾ 3rd goal in beating AUS 3-2
◾ 1st goal for 10-men India in the QF
◾ 2 goals in the Bronze medal match to win 2-1Harmanpreet came. Harmanpreet smashed in the goals. Harmanpreet won 😤 pic.twitter.com/O33jmmEUcX
- ESPN India (@ESPNIndia) August 8, 2024
You want sustained success? Choose control. India chose Fulton, and Fulton chose Harmanpreet Singh to be his on-field director.
Where the Reid coaching philosophy was manifested by Manpreet Singh and his ability to introduce chaos into any situation, Fulton's alter ego is Harmanpreet Singh. Sedate, calculated, efficient. Slow the game down. Pick out the long balls. Get everyone else to win penalty corner after penalty corner and let him set up base at the head of the first battery.
The Manpreet manic-ness was needed in Tokyo, where a team that lacked belief broke one of the great droughts in Indian sport through a display of pure passion, a campaign run on adrenaline and tactics that channelled it all into end-to-end action. In Paris, Manpreet played deep as he fell in line with the Fulton-Harmanpreet axis. Control over chaos. Discipline and structure and shape replacing energy and running and passion as key words. On Thursday, there was vindication, in a bronzed glow.
This is a personal triumph for Fulton, whose brand of hockey was always going to be criticised if it hadn't resulted in a medal. It's also a win for Harmanpreet, who suffered an inexplicably bad debut as captain in a major tournament - the World Cup in India earlier this year - and had questions swirling around him: is he good enough? Is he overhyped? Can he handle the pressure? After all, at the World Cup, with the spotlight fully on him, he failed to score at the Kalinga stadium and India were wiped out early. Instead of running away, though, he embraced it all, the spotlight and the pressure and the expectations. He became plan A, and now that plan A has delivered -- Indian hockey reminding the Olympic podium of the inseparable love they once shared.
Control. Discipline. Dragflicks. An Olympic medal retained. Now the key is to repeat the trick all over again.