Indian men’s hockey team vice-captain and senior midfielder Hardik Singh on Saturday took all responsibilities for his side’s ouster from the FIH World Cup after suffering a 1-3 defeat against Olympic champions the Netherlands, saying “one per cent of lapse” in the entire match proved costly for them. India conceded two goals in the final quarter despite a flawless first half to lose 1-3 against the hosts and crash out of the semifinal race. India needed to win this match at all costs to reach the last four stage, but despite a good start, the team committed mistakes in the final 10 minutes to get knocked out of the podium contention.
India will now play an inconsequential final second-round match against Argentina on Monday. After that, the team will play the fifth-eighth place classification matches.
“It’s all about opportunity. If we win, all credit goes to the team and similarly today when we lost, we take the responsibility. We knew their (Netherlands) game, their tactics and all, but this is the beauty of this game that you do 99 percent right but that one percent of lapse could prove costly. This is what happened,” Hardik said after the match.
“In hockey, whoever executes well wins and today they were better.”
Hardik said the World Cup was the team’s biggest opportunity after four years of preparation and admitted he needed to contribute more.
“I am not thinking about the Asian Games as of now. The World Cup was the biggest opportunity and we have been working really hard for the last four years. Individually I failed, I should have raised my game,” he admitted.
The midfielder, however, promised that the team would use the disappointment as a learning experience.
“It’s a team game and we win as a team, we lose as a team. We train for these kind of games and we couldn’t succeed. We will learn from this and come back stronger. In today’s hockey, anything can happen among the top eight teams,” he said.
Defender Amit Rohidas said India’s defence held firm for the first 40 minutes but unforced errors allowed the Dutch to seize control.
“We started really well and the defence was intact till 40 minutes. We made silly mistakes and conceded goals. We will win against Argentina and then think about the Asian Games,” Rohidas said.
Rohidas also sent his best wishes to the Indian women’s team, who face Australia in their quarterfinal on Sunday.
“I want to wish the women’s team all the best and hopefully they do well tomorrow against Australia and reach the semifinals,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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