On their return to the Olympic stage after a period of 36 years, the Indian hockey team has so far achieved just one point out of a possible 9 points in the opening 3 games of their group. India could only manage a result in the opening game of the tournament where they managed a 2-2 draw against Japan before losing back-to-back games in the hands of Great Britain and Australia by margins of 0-3 and 1-6 respectively.
Morale will be low following disappointing results but the Women in Blue will need to take inspiration from their male counterparts if they are to have a realistic shot at a quarter finals berth. There is plenty of room for improvements to be made, the defense needs to tighten up and make sure they do not concede as many goals as they have done so far in the tournament in the remaining two games. As a top four finish within the group would seal a place in the quarters, team India are still in with a realistic shot.
Room For Improvement
Coach Neil Hawgood will no doubt keep a clean sheet in the next game on the top of his wish list as India look to end their winless streak against the USA who are currently ranked 5th in the world as per the latest FIH world rankings.
Team USA, who are sitting pretty in 2nd place in the group, will no doubt provide another difficult challenge to the Indian defence but the Indian defense and especially the goalkeeper Savita will need to keep their heads and make sure they do not concede easy penalty corners and set pieces against a USA team who will be looking to attack from the get go
But while a point maybe good enough against USA, nothing short of a win would do against Argentina in our last encounter of the tournament. Considering Australia, USA and Great Britain as almost dead set for the next round now, it will be a tussle between Argentina, Japan and India for the third and final qualifying spot.
Provided Japan lose both of their remaining games against USA and Great Britain and Argentina lose their next match against Australia, the match between India and Argentina may become a virtual knockout in which whichever team loses gets knocked out of the tournament and the other progresses through. A draw would favour the Argentinians though as they already have three points on the board following their win against Japan.
So a 4 or even a 3 out of the remaining 6 points should realistically see us through to the next round unless there is a major upset elsewhere in the group . The match against Argentina will be crucial to our chances of making it to a historic quarter-finals after making a return to the Olympic stage.
Group Standings
| Position | Team | Played | Win | Draw | Loss | Goals For | Goals Against | Goal Difference | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GreatBritain | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 3 | +5 | 9 |
| 2 | USA | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | +2 | 6 |
| 3 | Australia | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 5 | +3 | 3 |
| 4 | Argentina | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 5 | +2 | 3 |
| 5 | Japan | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | -4 | 1 |
| 6 | India | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 11 | -8 | 1 |
