Indian Mens Hockey Team Wins Bronze
What an incredible moment for the Indian men’s hockey team as they defeated Germany in a high scoring thriller. Both the teams were a little sloppy and that resulted in the match going till the last minute. Manpreet Singh couldn’t hold back his tears of joy after winning as it was his 3rd Olympics and now, he can take a sigh of relief. The Germans went hard as they played the contact game and because of that, they received 2 green and 1 yellow in the match.
It’s the story of coming good when it matters the most. The match went to the wire as India after a gap of 41 long years has a hockey bronze medal. It was the coach Graham Reid who believed in this team and what a comeback this is for Indian men’s hockey who have not witnessed such moments in the last 41 years. An Olympic winning moment after a long while and the whole team was ecstatic after the win. Coach took the center stage as he worked a day in and day out as all the players offered prayers and cheered after winning. The Indian team has defeated a team that hasn’t gone back without a medal in the last 4 Olympics. Harmanpreet scored 2 goals and 6 goals in total in the Olympics.
India was behind 1 goal in the first quarter and India was behind before coming to the next. In the next quarter, both teams scored 2 goals each and the scoreline became 3-3. In the 3rd quarter, India took 2 goals to lead and the scoreline was 5-3 after the end of the third quarter. In the last quarter, Indians were again sloppy and conceded a goal early in the 4th quarter.
Germany needed an equalizer and for that, they tried all that they can. They were short of 1 man for 5 minutes but still didn’t stopped attacking. India started defending deep and that wasn’t the right thing as they conceded 3 penalty corners in the final quarter. Thankfully for India that they could just score 1 and it was the last-minute save by Sreejesh that made sure India will have Bronze at the Tokyo 2020. Germany even removed their goalkeeper; India still couldn’t find a fence but all is well that ends well. Hockey God was probably on India’s side as India needed some luck to win this one.
Most of the players in the current team were playing their second or third Olympics and even thought of retirement. However, one should encourage their will to still play as they have finally brought home a medal in hockey which the nation has been waiting for last 41 years. India should savor this moment as in all the previous editions that India won a medal in field hockey, it was played on grass. On AstroTurf, it was India’s first medal and the beginning of something new for Indian hockey. The women’s hockey team should take some inspiration from them when they will play their Bronze medal match tomorrow.