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India lost 1-3 to hosts and Olympic champions the Netherlands in their Pool E match at the Men’s Hockey World Cup in Amstelveen on Saturday. Duco Telgenkamp, Thijs Hoedemakers and Thijs van Dam scored, Harmanpreet Singh replying from a penalty corner. India remain pointless in the pool.
Amstelveen, Netherlands: India came to the Wagener Stadium needing something they have rarely taken from this opponent on this ground, and for forty minutes it looked possible.
Under the second-round format, they had arrived in Pool E with nothing. Teams carry forward only the points earned against the side that qualified alongside them, which for India meant the 4-2 defeat to England transferring across as zero. The 5-3 win over Pakistan and the 3-1 win over Wales counted for progression and no more. Two matches, against the Olympic champions and then Argentina, to salvage a semi-final place — and the harder of them came first.
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The Netherlands had won all three Pool A matches, beating New Zealand 5-1, Argentina 3-1 and Japan 4-1, and had conceded three goals in the entire tournament. Harmanpreet Singh’s side held them scoreless through the first half and into the third quarter.
Then, in fourteen minutes, the match got away.
Four Goals in Fourteen Minutes
Duco Telgenkamp broke the deadlock from close range in the 41st minute. Thijs Hoedemakers doubled the lead in the 51st with a delicate finish, and the match India had made competitive became one they were chasing.
Harmanpreet answered within a minute. The captain hammered home a penalty corner in the 52nd to make it 2-1, and for three minutes India had a contest again. Then Thijs van Dam scored in the 55th, and the margin was back to two with five minutes remaining.
Where It Leaves the Pool
The Netherlands move to six points, having carried three across from their win over Argentina. England have three. India have none, with one match left.
That match is against Argentina on Monday evening at the same ground, and India will need to win it and then hope. Only the top two from Pool E reach the semi-finals, and there are no quarterfinals in this edition to offer a second route.
What India Can Take
There is a version of this defeat that reads badly and a version that does not. India held the tournament’s form side scoreless for forty minutes, scored against a defence that has conceded sparingly, and lost by two goals to the reigning Olympic champions on their own pitch.
The problem is that the format does not reward any of that. Harmanpreet’s side needed a result here or something close to one, and a 1-3 defeat leaves their semi-final hopes dependent on other people’s results as much as their own.
Score: India 1 (Harmanpreet Singh 52′) Netherlands 3 (Duco Telgenkamp 41′, Thijs Hoedemakers 51′, Thijs van Dam 55′)
Half-time: India 0-0 Netherlands
Venue: Wagener Stadium, Amstelveen
Next: India v Argentina, Monday 24 August
