With Tokyo Olympics qualification, Indian Hockey teams aim to end medal drought

There are exactly 10 months before both the teams march for Olympics, and winning a medal for the national game will not just be an achievement, but it will be an emotion

It was not long ago when the Indians just couldn’t stop talking about the movie “Chak De! India” where the national sport was kept at the helm of everything and suddenly became popular among everyone. The sport which lacked media coverage and fan following became enormously huge. From that moment onward, the Indian hockey fans have been waiting for both men and women’s teams to win gold for the country in the most prestigious quadrennial tournament of all times, the Olympics. And it came to the delight of everyone when both the teams got qualified for the Tokyo Olympics on November 2.

Indian men’s hockey team seemed strong from the start when they took on Russia and easily advanced with their first step toward the golden dream of the Tokyo Olympics. But things looked quite uncertain for the women’s team yet the team proved its mettle to seal their spot in Tokyo Olympics 2020.

Rani Rampal’s strike

The biggest struggle that the women’s hockey team faces is of a steady start. They started on a poor note against the USA and the opponents looked in complete control and were dominating the Indian team in the first half. It looked like the team was lagging behind in every aspect and showcased their weakness.

Though game 1 was pretty much of a struggle for the Indian team, they still managed to score 5 goals against the USA. But in the second game, the USA made sure to pitch the highest score in order to push down the opposition by scoring four goals. The Indian hockey coach was waiting for a wonder to happen when the captain Rani Rampal struck in the 48^th minute and that was the moment when Indian women’s hockey team marched with their head held high in the of Tokyo Olympics as they defeated USA 6-5 by on aggregate despite of losing in the second leg 1-4.

Right now in the women’s team, Rani Rampal and Gurjit Kaur are the only 2 well-experienced players and the team needs more such players who can share the burden. The team is filled with new talents that are learning things with each game, but the players should pull up their socks in order to seal a medal in the Tokyo Olympics.

Looking at the team’s Olympics performance right from the beginning, the women’s team concluded the tournament in the fourth position in the year 1980. After 1980, the team was directly qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics where it finished at 12^th position, and the team will be playing its third-ever Olympics next year. During the 2008 Women's Field Hockey Olympic Qualifier, the team ranked fourth in the "Qualifying Two" event.

Men’s team awaits the “Golden” moment

Unlike the women’s team, the Indian men’s hockey team cruised into the Olympics easily with an aggregate score of 11-3 against the negligible Russians. The kind of dominance was expected as the team is at a much higher rank than Russia. Indian men’s hockey team currently stands at the 5^th position worldwide. And talking about its Olympics journey so far, the team is playing the Olympics right from the year 1928 and has won several medals, the majority of them are gold. But from 1984, the men’s hockey team has seen nothing but the medal drought at the Olympics.

It’s been nine Olympics now that the team has finished the tournaments at fifth, sixth, seventh or eights position. In the year 2008, during the Beijing Olympics, the team did not even qualify for the tournament. In the 2016 Rio Olympics, the team finished the tournament in the eighth position.

The men’s team has an advantage before they go to Tokyo, which is the Pro League. The league will be starting in January where the players will get to play against some of the best sides in the world in order to test their expertise in the game. It will also help them to understand the areas of improvement so that the errors get eliminated before the Olympics.

Now that the team has qualified for the Olympics, they will need to focus on being consistent. They choked Russia with sheer dominance, but it should be taken into consideration that the Russian team is ranked 22^nd and it is surely an easy task to put the team down. Graham Reid, the coach of the men’s team is very well aware that the team can fail when it comes to consistent performance and it can cost big time in a tournament like the Olympics.

The team needs to be really good at finishing. Even during the match against Russia, there were many instances where the team gave chances to the opponent due to the lack of consistency. Also, the defense needs to get deeper and tighter in order to survive. The team is no doubt is a blend of every detail, but when it comes to teams better than Russia, players like Akashdeep Singh and Mandeep Singh need to be more accurate in front of the goal and make sure to earn penalty along with apt targets. This will allow Harmanpreet Singh and Rupinder to use the skill of flicking to score more.

There are exactly 10 months before both the teams march for Olympics, and winning a medal for the national game will not just be an achievement, but also be an emotion for every person of this country. Making a mistake is not an option in this Olympics.

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