Nothing’s impossible but India needs a huge effort to thwart Germany

Indian coach Rajinder Singh Jr was obviously very disappointed with the irresponsible showing of some of the experienced and senior forwards and an erratic midfield aginst Spain in the pool A match. Even though India put up a better display in the second half, it was not good enough to penetrate the sturdy Spanish defence.

Germany have always been a very difficult squad to overcome as they possess perhaps the best combination of speed, skill and stamina backed up by a quality bench strength.

Their attackline has been strengthened with the inclusion of 30-year-old Christian Kurtz, back in the squad after a couple of years. The Germans will look to try out various combinations in this tournament, with an eye on the European Championship beginning at Leipzig later this month. Their strike power is in the hands of veterans Bjoern Emmerling and Tibor Weissenborn, who between themselves have 450 international caps. Mittias Witthaus, Florian Keller, Phillip Zeller and goalkeeper Christian Schulte will be the others to watch out for.

India will have to play with good ball control and ensure that they do not commit any unforced errors, if they have to make a match of it. They would have to remove all mental blocks of being the beating boys.

But for this, their forwards would have to coordinate essays into goals. Against Spain, Gagan Ajit Singh, Deepak Thakur, Prabhjot and Arjun Halappa all came croppers, failing to put up a decent display and create chances.

Even the midfield committed mistakes, particularly Bimal Lakra in the centre. It will have to be a fine tuned and orchestrated combined effort hereafter by India if they are to redeem themseves and hold their heads up.