Hold on to the winning rhythm

We started with four forwards – one of them withdrawn. Though our strategy should have been to attack from the word ‘go’, it shouldn’t have been with four forwards and no supply system. I fail to understand why we chose to attack in such an unplanned against the Germans. All we needed to do was build early pressure and sustain it. The coordination in our forwardline was missing and that allowed the Germans to get on top and take the lead. That was our first mistake. The second mistake we committed was the psychological advantage we allowed them by letting them get a grip on the proceedings. In the first 20-25 minutes, they played exactly the way they wanted to.

Third, we didn’t expect them to study the flaws in our defence. They quickly noticed the yawning gaps on the right flank and utilised the aerial balls to break our defence. Most of their attacks in the first half were from the left, our right, and danger constantly hovered around our goal.

The other thing is that we should never have forgotten that even though this was not the best German side, their defence will always be cast in the same solid mould, be it the junior team, or even a veterans’ team. I think we were lucky to get a couple of breaks in the dying minutes. First the equaliser and then Gagan Ajit Singh’s fantastic strike from a half chance. But now that we have made it to the points tally, we have to concentrate on the next match against Australia on Tuesday. We have to forget our first game and only remember that we made the Germans ‘choke’ and scored two goals in the last 10 minutes. It proves that if we try, we can apply pressure and score in the last few minutes also.

We have to carry that forward and never be bogged down by pressure in our future matches. The winning rhythm is a nice feeling and we have to hold on to it now.