Outclassification: India complete pointless return

And there couldnt be a better team than South Africa to drive home the point.

What grumpy Saturday morning did to Indian hockey,after a 3-2 loss in their last outing of the Olympics ouster,was a sobering splash of water on the face that was puffy and punch drunk on a carefully constructed delusion: that this team was ready to fight not just compete at the Olympics stage,and finish Top 6,by doing little more than turning up.

And there couldnt be a better team than South Africa to drive home the point. Both teams finished their pool matches with no wins. Except,the South Africans,had drawn their group match with semifinalists Great Britian,and were pipped by 1-goal deficits to Spain and Pakistan. Indias loss-margins were larger,and they failed to pick a single point this last fortnight in London,ending 12th in the 12-team field. Much before the blue turf was even laid at the Riverbank Arena,the Protea mens hockey team had assessed its self-worth by going out to win an Olympic qualifying tournament beating Japan told sternly by the SA Olympic Committee that mere qualification as African champions was too easy though it would have sufficed,and they needed to prove their competence by travelling to Kakamigahara and emerge unbeaten.

After going through a weak field in their qualifiers back home,in the lead-up to London,India played a mere eight matches against the top-recognised teams,with a team whose reputation was inflated from playing lesser opponents.

On Saturday,captain Bharat Chhetri admitted for the first time that the team had erred grossly in their self-perception. Before coming here,we thought we are a much better team than we are. In London,we realised that the Olympics is at a very different level from smaller tournaments like Azlan Shah, he said.

The 11-12th position classification game against the Africans had all the contributing elements of what has been Indias debacle. A loss against a lower ranked team, an indifferent,inconsistent defence,a forward-line unable to trap or convert. In a space of seven minutes in the second half,Tushar Khandekar hit the post,Sunil grazed the bar and Sandeep Singh twice missed scoring from drag-flicks. Open goal chances have been botched in the past two weeks,and Sardar Singh keeps shaking his head incredulously every time his move from the midfield ends aborted in newer fashion with forwards either absent or crowded out.

The whole team needs to be mentally tougher. The forward line and finishing,especially. The best teams take their chances,and when you feed the ball into the circle they at least have two players ready. Trappings a huge problem,and we just dont manage to get a player at the second post to bend and tap it in, Sardar Singh said.

Players werent even reeling off excuses. Khandker accepted that players had failed the team,saying,We couldnt play well and have to improve a lot. The failure was because of us. Theres no excuse not even pressure.