Impossible is nothing” Indian Women’s Hockey Team prove as they beat Australia to be in Olympic Semi-Finals
Harpal Singh Bedi / AMN
India stunned Australia 1-0 to reach the semi-finals in women’s hockey at the Tokyo Olympics. This will be the Indian women’s hockey team’s first last four appearance at Olympic Games. The Indian women’s team had finished fourth in the 1980 Moscow Olympics but the format in those Games was different, as there were no knockout matches.
India will face Argentina in the semi-finals, who defeated Germany 3-0 in the first quarterfinal earlier on Monday. A spot in the semifinals also means that India are guaranteed a medal match for the first-time at the Olympics.
“Impossible is nothing” Indian Women’s Hockey Team prove as they beat Australia to be in Olympic Semi-Finals
The Indian Women’s Hockey Team defeated Australia 1-0 in the Tokyo Olympics Quarter-Final
“Impossible is nothing” this epic quote belongs to Legendary boxer Mohammed Ali
The Indian women hockey team relived this quote in Tokyo on Monday. They wrote a script which even their staunchest supporters never thought was possible
India pulled off an incredible win beating all mighty Australia 1-0 to storm in to the semifinals of the Olympic hockey, an unchartered territory for them where they will face Argentina on Wednesday.
Argentina defeated Germany 3-0 in their Quarter-Final match earlier .
Indians played their hearts out and fought toe-to-toe against the formidable opponent ranked World Number 2 Australia in the Quarter-Final match
Indian were superb in attacking and d brilliant in defence game as Gurjit Kaur (22′) emerged as the only goal-scorer of the match.
. Australia had of most of the ball possession in the opening minutes of the match and created a chance early on in the game, however, goalkeeper Savita stood between them and the goal.
. In the 9th minute, Vandana Katariya made a brilliant pass to Rani in the circle, but the latter couldn’t tap the ball into the goal.
Australia made a few circle penetrations in the last few minutes of the first quarter, but they couldn’t find a way to break the deadlock.
It was close contest as the second quarter started . Australia made a circle penetration in the 6th minute of the second quarter and earned a Penalty Corner but it was muffed
India countered and earned a Penalty Corner. Gurjit Kaur (22′) carried out the drag-flick and found the back of the net to make it 1-0
Australia put some pressure but defense foiled their attempts. In the 11th minute , Salima Tete made a circle penetration and took a shot, but she looped the ball over the crossbar.
Indian kept the pressure as the two teams went into the break with Australia trailing 0-1
Australia began the third quarter aggressively and made a circle penetration straight away, however, they failed to breach the defence
Australia earned a Penalty Corner in the third minute of the third quarter; however, they couldn’t convert their opportunity. They forced another Penalty Corner in the next minute, but the defenders pushed the ball away fantastically.
The world number 2 team kept trying to put pressure on their opponents, however, the Indians kept intercepting the ball.
In the 13th minute, Neha made a brilliant pass to Navneet in the circle, but the latter took a shot, but couldn’t find the back of the net. Sharmila Devi drove the ball from the right in the final minutes of the third quarter, however, the Indians couldn’t deflect the ball into the goal.
In the 7th minute of the fourth quarter, Australia earned two Penalty Corners, but the defenders made brilliant saves and ensured that they stayed in the lead.
Desperate Australians kept pressing forward, kept making circle penetrations, but they just couldn’t find a way to breach the defence.
With just three minutes left on the clock, the Australians earned a Penalty Corner. The Australians took a shot, but Monika calmly tapped the ball away from the goal.
They forced earned another Penalty Corner soon after and got very close to the goal, but the Indians held their nerve and directed the ball away.
The Indians kept most of the ball possession in the final minutes of the match and ensured that they booked a place in the Semi-finals.
Coach Sjoerd Marijne lavishes praise
Indian women’s hockey team coach Sjoerd Marijne on Monday lavished praise on players for putting up an incredible display by beating formidable Australia 1-0 on their way to Olympic semifinals at Tokyo.
“This match also proves dreams can come true. If you start believing and you keep believing and you keep working hard, things can happen. You have to do the work to fulfill your dreams and that’s what we did today.” the coach said after India’s historic win.
“Today, I told the girls to just play freely. The pressure is on the other team and that’s really important to know. The Quarter-Final matches are really difficult for the teams who are higher ranked. And I wanted the players to be proud of themselves today, regardless of the result.
“And I told the players that at the end of the match, they shouldn’t feel their legs after running so much on the pitch. We defended well today. The defensive structure during Penalty Corners was very good.” he said.
Further elaborating the coach opined “After we qualified for the Quarters, I told the team about the importance of being in the moment and not thinking about what-ifs and that is very difficult for an athlete because there are many things that are constantly playing in your mind, things like what if we win, what if we don’t win, what if I don’t stop the ball, so what I did is showed the team a movie and the film is about staying in the moment and I think that made a big difference in this match against Australia.
Explaining his strategy, he said “We didn’t have a lot of practice matches before the Olympics so we kept telling the girls to improve with every match. We focused on every individual improving her performance and if the personal performances are better than the performance of the team will be better.
“We knew that we had to learn from every match that we play since we didn’t have a lot of games leading into the competition. After we lost 1-5 to the Netherlands, it looked as if everything was shattered, it wasn’t. We only needed to make a few small improvements.” he added.