India took their first definite step on their quest for another Olympic hockey medal when they qualified today for the Games in Athens later this year. They beat Canada 6-4 here, a victory that did little, however, to quell doubts about their capabilities against tougher opposition.Nonentheless, there was huge relief in the Indian camp after today’s match ended. Their performance graph here has erratic, a mixture of shaky wins and deserving defeats, but they still became the first team from Pool B to qualify for Athens. Spain and Netherlands have already qualified from pool A.A relieved Rajinder Singh admitted that there was a lot of pressure to qualify after the drawn game against Belgium. ‘‘We were upset after that match and all the players were under pressure. But now we look forward to playing better hockey in the next stage.’’The semifinals — India are likely to meet the Netherlands, the reigning Olympic champions — will certainly require drastic improvement in the team’s performance level. It was, as they say in football, a game of two halves. India showed flashes of brilliance in the first, playing their characteristic attacking brand, but defended poorly in the second.At the end of first half, India were leading 4-0 — scoring their first two goals inside two minutes. However, since goal difference would play an important role in deciding the teams for qualifying it was strange that the Indians did not check the Canadians from scoring goals in the next session.Canada are not as strong as they used to be — India had lost 4-1 to them in the 1998 World Cup and had just managed to win 2-1 in their previous meeting in the 2001 World Cup qualification tournament.Today, the Indians should have put up an overall team display to enter the semifinals with confidence. But Rajinder Singh himself said that the team’s defence was bad today. ‘‘Canada dominated the second half — our defenders, midfielders and forwards did not play well.’’ In this tournament, more than any others in the past, the top teams are increasingly following the European style — the entire team moves together in both attack and defence. The Indians, however, don’t believe in following the international trend but it is important that sometimes their forwards should assist in the defending job. Moreover, without Dhanraj Pillay for the first time, their forwardline looks shaky and the understanding between the players on the field needs further improvement.The main problem seems to be defence, and the criminal tendency of giving away penalty corners. The six they conceded today brings their total for this tournament to 28 in five matches and will surely be punished far more harshly by stronger teams.The other problem — it will trouble them in the next round when they play tough teams — is missing easy chances in the opposition’s D. The Indians failed to score from at least a dozen chances today. Prabhjot has been totally off colour in this tournament and the other player in the forwardline Sandeep Michael was hardly given an opportunity even against Canada. Surprisingly, Daljeet Singh Dhillon, whose fitness is suspect, was used as substitute on a couple of occasions.The biggest gain for India after their last pool match today is the form of two main players in the attack — Gagan Ajit Singh and Deepak Thakur have both performed consistently in the last three matches. Today Deepak struck three goals while Arjun Halappa, Dilip Tirkey and Ignace Tirkey scored one each.OTHER RESULTSHolland (9) bt Japan (3); Belgium (2) bt Malaysia (2); Great Britain (6) bt South Africa (0); Spain (6) bt Poland (0); Pakistan (4) bt New Zealand.
