Paris, France, July 29, 2024: India’s Manpreet Singh praised the fighting spirit of his team after they fought back to draw 1-1 against Argentina in men’s hockey Pool B play at a sweltering Stade Yves-du-Manoir on Monday.
Argentina took the lead in the 22nd minute when a shot from Lucas Martinez deflected into the goal off the stick of India’s goalie, PR Sreejesh.
Argentina should have extended this lead but Maico Casella Schuth shot wide of goal from a penalty stroke on 37 minutes, allowing India to battle back and force a series of penalty corners.
The Indian supporters in the large crowd, having been silenced for long periods by Argentina’s control of the game, responded to India’s renewed vigour and were rewarded just one minute from time with captain Harmanpreet Singh’s equaliser from a penalty corner high into the net.
In six-team Pool B, the Indians have one win, against New Zealand, and one draw and next play Ireland. The other two teams are Belgium and Australia, with the top four advancing to the quarter-finals.
Manpreet Singh said the biggest problem for his team was failing to convert their chances into goals. “Otherwise it was a good game,” he said.
“That is what we expected before the match that Argentina will play like this. They will try to hold the ball more and they will do more defensive structures but, overall, it was a good game. We got a lot of chances and we just need to keep continue those things and whenever we get the chance we should just convert into the goals.
“We just need to play our game, just perform match by match, and that’s it.”
The penalty stroke miss of Casella Schuth proved to be the turning point, but Manpreet said that India had squandered good chances, too.
“I think we also got a couple of good chances which we missed, otherwise the score would be different,” he added.
“In the first quarter we got a couple of good chances but we missed it, but yeah, if they had scored that it would be a different game. We were lucky that they missed the penalty stroke but, overall, if we see the performance we played well. We didn’t give up. We fought until the last whistle and that’s why we got a score. It is better than losing.”
Asked if this team could match or better their bronze medal in Tokyo three years ago, Manpreet commented: “Definitely, because the players, most of the players, have played international hockey so they have good experience. I think we are pretty confident that we can change the colour this time.”