Junior Hockey World Cup: India come through emotional rollercoaster against Belgium to reach semifinals

In the end, it was the young goalkeeper, inspired by another No.16 in PR Sreejesh to take up goalkeeping, who had the final say on a night of incredible drama.

Belgium took the lead, India hit back twice to lift the roof at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium, before the Europeans equalised in the final minute to force a shootout at 2-2. India then prevailed in a rather extraordinary tiebreaker to reach the semifinals, where they will face Germany on Sunday.

Before the match, Sreejesh’s advice to his wards was simple: enjoy the pressure, and remember this is just the beginning. But Belgium appeared fired up from the word go to upset India’s party at home. In the 13th minute, Gaspard Cornez-Massant became the first player to score past India’s defence in this tournament. He drove towards goal from a free-out, played a pass into the circle which was touched to the left by Mathis Lauwers – perhaps inadvertently – but it fell kindly to Gaspard, who unleashed a reverse hit past Princedeep.

The defenders were all bunched together, which meant there was no one marking the free man.
Manmeet Singh, who has perhaps been India’s best outfielder in the tournament so far, was involved in a lot of the good work India did in attack for the rest of the half but the hosts were not creating enough clear-cut chances to put Belgium under pressure.

India had the better of the possession in the third quarter and with six minutes to go, half the stadium thought they had equalised before it dawned on them that the ball had whistled just wide of the post from Anmol Ekka’s fierce drag-flick.
Then in the last minute of the third quarter, captain Rohit stepped up with a bullet of a drag-flick that beat goalkeeper Alexis van Havere for sheer pace. Later in the mixed zone, the skipper would arrive with a big smile on his face: “Aaj toh PC maar diya, aaj toh PC maar diya!”

The drama wasn’t done in the third quarter too. Belgium won a series of PCs as the hooter went. After retakes and a lengthy review, India managed to thwart them all, and the crowd went ballistic, this time appreciating defensive solidity.

In the 48th minute, Sharda Nand Tiwari scored low to the goalkeeper’s right to make it two penalty corner goals from five opportunities: 40 percent conversion in a big match would eventually please Sreejesh. There was still time left for a late twist. With the clock winding down, the crowd was cheering every defensive tackle from India. When Belgium counterattacked, there was one fan shouting at the top of his voice: “All-man defence!”

And India were doing it fine… until 60 seconds to go, when they lost the ball carelessly, trying to push forward to make use of Belgium taking their goalkeeper off, instead of winding the clock down.

It hurt them as Belgium found the equaliser from the resulting turnover.

This necessitated the final chapter of the night: a rather extraordinary shootout. With neither team converting the initial attempts, there were strokes being awarded left, right and centre for fouls by both goalkeepers. Sharda was called on not once, but three times. One of those strokes was saved, but India reviewed it late, which the Belgian captain later claimed shouldn’t have stood because it came after seeing a replay on the big screen.

Then there was a slip from Manmeet that brought about a hush from the stands. In the end, Princedeep brought out a huge stick tackle, then got up and dived again to pull off a massive save, which made the difference. As Belgium delayed India’s celebrations with a review after Ankit Pal’s winning attempt, there was one final eruption of joy in the stands.

Sreejesh later said he’ll let the players rest up and enjoy the night, but there will be some stern words in the morning. It was a night of a fair few flaws from India, but they came through the emotional rollercoaster with an impressive win against a tough opponent.