Coach Craig Fulton was delighted to see the Indian hockey team, despite playing nearly three quarters with 10 men, executing his ideas into action against Great Britain in its toughest match of the Paris Olympics so far and securing a berth in the semifinals.
Fulton was all praise for the team, which played like a unit. “We’ve been talking about defence for (the last) 14 months and we dug deep and (goalkeeper) Sree(jesh) was immense. When you talk about defence, it’s also about showing your love for your teammate by covering him and helping him. And Sree did that for us and we did that for him,” said Fulton after the exciting contest, which saw India beat Great Britain through a penalty shootout, at the Yves du Manoir Stadium here on Sunday.
“Everyone gathered around and worked on the tactics. Everyone was hands-on and it was a fantastic day,” the coach added.
On the team’s plans after Amit Rohidas was sent off in the 17 th minute, Fulton said, “We needed to score. And we did. We needed something to defend. So that had to come and it would help our tactics. Then we needed to push it as long as possible. If they did score, we got to shoot out. And that’s what it was.”
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Fulton said everything was at stake “and everything went the other way than we thought it would go. So, what an amazing day! It’s a statement (to ourselves)...A statement of when our backs are against the wall. We’re all in this together.”
About Rohidas’ red card after his stick hit William Calnan’s head, Fulton said, “If someone gets hit to the head, something’s wrong. But I will stand up for Amit. He’s not that kind of player. You’ve always got to look where there’s smoke, there’s fire. So, what happened first, for that to happen. We’ll just look to that. Not the other way.”
Harmanpreet Singh said with only 10 men his team was bound to defend hard. “We had no option but to keep the score tied till the end. We focussed on defence, we played to a structure and today communication between the players was pretty good. It was a team effort,” he said.
The Indian captain said they had to forget the red card and move forward.
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Harmanpreet acknowledged Sreejesh’s role. “Sreejesh is a legend, he is one of the best we have. He is saving us from day one. But when you ask him, he will say it was a team effort, so team first, then individuals,” said Harmanpreet.
Sreejesh stressed team effort in defending. “You need support from your players. They adapted to the pressure (today). And they raised their level and played a good game,” the custodian, who made a crucial save in the shootout, said.
“I don’t know how many kilometres they might have covered today. But from the centre forward to the deep defence, everyone was running around. They were working really hard to cover their forwards. Defend to win, that’s our mantra,” said Sreejesh.
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