"India played really well vs Germany, could have slowed things down in Q2" - Jude Felix on team's Paris 2024 semifinal loss [Exclusive]
The Indian men's hockey team went down to Germany 2-3 in the semifinals of the Paris Olympics on Tuesday (August 6). Former India international Jude Felix stated unequivocally that the Indians played their best match of the tournament against Germany in the semifinals.
Stressing that the Indians controlled much of the game, Felix opined that Craig Fulton's team could have slowed things down when the Germans were looking to ramp up the aggression in the second quarter.
During an exclusive interaction with Sportskeeda, the Dronacharya awardee declared that he was proud of the performance of the Indian men's hockey team despite the narrow defeat in the semifinals.
"It's just very unfortunate, they (the Indians) could have controlled the game a little more after the first quarter which totally belonged to India. The third quarter also completely belonged to India. The fourth quarter also was more or less our game," Felix said.
"Only in the second quarter. we lost it, whereby we gave them the chance to get into their rhythm. India could have slowed the game down at that stage," the 59-year-old from Bangalore observed.
Jude Felix was of the opinion that the Indian team should have adopted a more conservative approach in the second quarter so as to disrupt the rhythm of the opposition.
The Indians, who took the lead thanks to a Harmanpreet Singh penalty corner goal in the seventh minute, were pegged back by a wave of attacks from the Germans, who leveled things up in the 18th minute.
A penalty stroke, which came as a result of a short corner stop on the line, allowed the Germans to take a 2-1 lead before half-time.
"While watching the match, we kept talking about how India should have slowed the game down a bit and not attacked every ball. We could have tried to be a little more conservative if I may use the word. Slowing the game down could have disrupted the rhythm of the Germans," he explained.
"Once we allowed them to get into their rhythm, they scored the equalizer. But the whole Indian team played really well and Hardik Singh absolutely stood out," said Felix, who represented India at the Seoul Olympics in 1988 and the Barcelona Games in 1992.
Jude Felix did, however, point out that it was "intriguing" why the Indians did not play as well throughout the tournament as they did against the Germans.
"It did intrigue everybody as to why India did not play this kind of hockey throughout the tournament. When all of us have got it in us, we need to repeat the performance over and over again," he stated.
"Rush-outs are nullifying goalscoring opportunities from penalty-corners" - Jude Felix on why hockey drag-flickers are struggling to score
The Indian men's hockey team has been reliant on Harmanpreet Singh's goals from set pieces for much of the tournament, with the Indian captain having scored eight of the team's 13 goals thus far.
Jude Felix observed that goals from open play come about only when a team has been prepared to play in a certain manner.
"Field goals will come only when you have prepared your team to play that way. You need to be prepared to play that away and train to score field goals," said Felix, who coached the Indian juniors at the 2018 Sulton of Johor Cup.
Gonzalo Peillat, who was in the limelight during the 2016 Rio Olympics for scoring 11 goals for the Argentinians en route to a maiden field hockey gold medal for the South Americans, was at his best against the Indians in the big semifinal.
The ace drag-flicker, who now plays for Germany, scored the equalizer for his team before setting up the vital penalty stroke. The Indians, who earned 12 penalty corners, converted a couple while the Germans scored from one of their seven short corners but manufactured a penalty stroke from one as well.
Felix believes that Peiilat, who has not been in peak form in the lead-up to the hockey event at the Olympics, could have scored even if India's first-runner Amit Rohidas had been present to stop the penalty corner.
"Even with Amit running, we have conceded PC goals. So you can't just use that as an excuse. Gonzalo Peillat was not scoring much because it's getting tougher the way people run out to defend the penalty corners. That's why even Harmanpreet Sing couldn't score much. The rush-outs nullify the goalscoring opportunities," Felix eluciated.
The former double Olympian asserted that the Indians have a good chance of getting the better of Spain if only they continue playing just as well as they did against Germany.
"If they have the whole team and Amit Rohidas returns - and if they play as well as they did against Germany, I don't see any reason why they should not be able to do well against Spain." Jude Felix reasoned.
Amit Rohidas, who was shown a red card in the quarterfinal against Great Britain, served a one-match suspension and was hence unavailable for the match against Germany.
The Indians will face Spain in the bronze-medal game of the men's hockey competition at the Paris Olympics on Thursday (August 8).