Why winning the 9th Asia Cup is now even tougher for Indian men’s hockey team?

This piece was published in Sportskeeda
If at all the Indian men’s hockey team were tacitly seeking any favours from some of their fellow Asian teams in their pursuit to seal a berth for the 2014 World Cup at the second men’s Hockey World League Round 3 event in Johor Bahru, there were none coming!

In fact, the disappointing performances of the three major Asian teams – world number five Pakistan, 8^th ranked South Korea and 13^th ranked Malaysia - in the second men’s Hockey World League Round 3 event in Johor Bahru have made India’s job of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup by winning the 9h Asia Cup even more tougher.

India’s hopes of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup would have got a huge boost if two of the three Asian teams finished in the top three of the second men’s Hockey World League Round 3 event in Johor Bahru. Of course, the hopes of two Asian nations making to the World Cup qualifying stage were wiped out in the quarterfinal stage itself when Pakistan pressed the ‘inconsistent button’ and went down to lower ranked Korea 3-4, while hosts Malaysia were handed a 0-6 pasting by Olympic gold medallist and top-ranked Germany.

Effectively going into the semifinals, South Korea was the lone Asian country with the hope of achieving a top-3 finish and sealing its 2014 World Cup berth.

But South Korea’s 1-2 defeat at the hands of 4^th ranked England in the third place play-off tie must have been something India, for that matter Pakistan or Malaysia would have wished for – simply because all four teams – India, Pakistan, South Korea and Malaysia would now have to slug it out for the lone berth from Asia – winning the 9^th Asia Cup.

Had Malaysia, who finished 5^th in the Johor Bahru event, managed to sneak out a top-three finish along with South Korea or Pakistan , the pressure would have eased a bit on India as they would have known that only two Asian teams are fighting for the 2014 World Cup berth in the 9^th Asia Cup in Ipoh, as two nations would have already made the cut from the Johor Bahru event.

It is often said that good teams invariably plays to win and don’t care two hoots about permutations and combinations while qualifying for a marquee event.

This precisely should be the line of thinking of the Indian men’s hockey team when they prepare for the 9^th Asia Cup at their upcoming national camp beginning in Bengaluru on July 16.

The writing is clearly on the wall for India. But it hardly means that we should give up hope. Fortunately, India is placed in Pool B which features only one strong team South Korea besides unfancied sides like Oman and Bangladesh against whom we are expected to sail through.

So making it to the semifinals should be well within India’s grasp. Look at Pool A – Pakistan has to counter Malaysia and rapidly improving Japan in their bid to make it to the last-four stage.

It’s quite clear that India has got a favourable draw in the 9^th Asia Cup. It will all boil down to two big matches – their semifinal and final opponents, though one is not trying to suggest in any way that the Blueshirts can afford to take the league phase lightly.

A bit of favour from the fellow Asian teams would have helped India’s cause, but why bother about things that are not in their control – they just have to play as a team and win the 9^th Asia Cup – instead of thinking about ‘ifs and buts’!

Picture Courtesy Khelnama