Argentina puts eight past hapless India

Indian men’s hockey might have had its nemesis in Australia through the ages but the team lived through a fresh 60-minute nightmare at the Birsa Munda Stadium on Thursday, suffering a 8-0 humiliation against Argentina in its second FIH Pro League outing.

This was India’s biggest defeat in international competitions and the biggest ever to Argentina, equalling identical losses to Holland (1985) and Australia (2010).

In a game that was equal parts surreal and ridiculous, India appeared to be walking around in a trance and could barely put stick to ball even as the Argentines turned up the heat on the field. The start was fairly normal but the Indians looked like having a collective mental and physical shut down soon after.

The first ominous signs came when Harmanpreet Singh fluffed consecutive penalty strokes in the 13th minute, sending the ball slow enough to the left of Tomas Santiago for the goalkeeper to easily pad it away. A counter through the middle, two quick passes and Tomas Ruiz’s backhand went over Suraj Karkera’s head into the net. A penalty corner a minute later and Tomas Domene made it 2-0 inside the first 15 minutes.

The break seemed to turn off the lights on the Indians. There was no attack, no defence and no presence. There were bizarre happenings – Nilam Sanjeep Xess back-passed into an empty Indian circle with two Argentina forwards and Lucio Mendez happily accepted the gift.

Credit is also due to Argentina who made full use of the confusion in Indian ranks, shaking off their markers, forcing them to spread wide and open up space all over the field, going 7-0 at half time.

The second half was a contrast, not so much in India’s performance as in Argentina being seemingly content with the scoreline and pulling back on the intensity. Domene got one in the final minute to round off his four-peat.

The result: Argentina 8 (Tomas Domene 15-pc, 20, 26, 60, Tomas Ruiz 14, Lucio Mendez 22, Ignacio Ibarra 25, Nicolas Della Torre 30-pc) bt India 0.