Jude turns the saviour as India scrape past Spain

Baljit Dhillon’s drag flicks from penalty corners and penalty strokes have been a revelation. He is becoming the scourge of goalkeepers and I am sure that as he lines up he creates some sort of tension and nervousness in the defenders’ minds ala Bram Lomans & Sohail Abbas style.

Stout-hearted defence by goalkeeper Jude Menezes who kept out the Spaniards’ missiles he saved 4 clear goals in the last 10 minutes when our defence was being pushed to the brink as Spain fought for the equaliser. He has had an excellent tournament so far and has really played his heart out saving India when it mattered most. Let us give him his due credit India has always been suspect to conceding from penalty corners, but this time Jude has been a rock, a colossal giant in the face of adversity having let in only 3 goals.

THE GOALS: The first goal in the 19th minute. Baljit’s penalty stroke. Powerful and true that beat an outstanding keeper all hands up. The penalty stroke was given when Dhillon carrying the ball towards the 25, passed the ball towards Samir Dad and Pillay who had stolen from behind Joquim Malgosa and Usoz deep in the circle. The ball was picked up by Pillay and as he was in the process of striking was pushed by Usoz which resulted in a legitimate penalty stroke. The Spanish defence was guilty of ball watching as two of our players poached behind them. (India 1-0).

The Equaliser: 3 minutes later (22nd minute) came from the Spanish drag flicker Xavier Ribas who directed his flick low on goalkeeper Jude’s left beating Jude’s outstretched leg (1-1).

We took the lead in the 31st minute. Tirkey’s hit went straight onto Jufresa’s pads and the resultant rebound came back straight to Tirkey and he calmly but quickly pushed it home over Jufresa. Jufresa could be faulted for the rebound his padding of the ball was faulty when logging a goalkeeper must tilt the upper-leg downwards to cushion the rebound and keep in within reach for a defensive clearance. (This was not the case as the rebound flew back to the top of the circle). (India 2-1).

For about 8 minutes after half time we showed our best, and it was during this time that we got another penalty corner. Dhillon flicked superbly to the right of Jufresa who moved but had no chance. (India 3-1).

The wounded matadors came at us in the 48th minute Pepe Sanchec slammed in after being fed by Pablo Amat. Again we were ball watching and let Pepe receive deep in the ‘D’. Our cover defence although there, was beaten on the turn and should have been closer and much faster with the reverse tackle. (India 3-2).

Looking at the bare facts we were extremely fortunate to win and collect 3 points. Lady luck smiled on us when Spain outplayed us in the midfield broke our defence most of the times especially during counter-attacks and a Xavier Ribas shot hit the post. Had they converted these chances as they customarily do, we would have been in mourning.

We have to work on the below mentioned areas in our quest for gold. Control possession in midfield and dictate the tone of the match from the beginning. Utilise Pillay in a more productive role up-front (instead of provider he is the dangerman for all teams and with him in midfield it definitely takes the sting out of the attack as well as gives the opposite defence some breathing space.