Sir alex to blame for India’s hockey heartbreak!

The Japanese women's hockey team broke Indian hearts on Friday with a 1-0 win at the FIH Qualifiers in Ranchi to qualify for the Paris Olympics. But right in the middle of that Japanese success was an Indian heart that was happy and proud. Japan's head coach Jude Menezes tightly held on to a cross in his pocket which belongs to his mother and smiled endlessly after the final whistle. "I just knelt down in prayer and remembered my mum," Menezes, 51, a Mumbai-born former India hockey goalkeeper, told mid-day over the phone from Ranchi, moments after the hardfought win.

Turnaround after Tokyo

Interestingly, the Japan women's team finished a poor 11th at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, following which, Menezes took charge of a rather young side. Recently, they finished with a silver medal, losing to this very Indian team in the final of the Asian Champions Trophy at the same venue, Ranchi.

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Head coach Jude Menezes (right) is all smiles alongside his Japanese women's hockey team after beating India in Ranchi yesterday

So how did Menezes turn things around? "Some of the Indian girls are very fast and like to break away with the ball. Our strategy was to stop that individual run. So, whenever an Indian girl tried to sprint ahead with the ball, I ensured one Japanese player got in her way to break that move," explained Menezes, a FIH Master Coach, who was a resident of Orlem, Malad, before migrating to New Zealand over two decades ago. Menezes was the assistant coach of the NZ women's team at the Tokyo Olympics.

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On Friday evening, the other aspect that worked for Japan was their brilliant defence. Japan's Kana Urata scored through a penalty corner in the sixth minute and after an evenly fought first half, the ball was almost entirely in or around the Japanese danger area as India relentlessly attacked and the Japanese girls stoutly defended. "I've always been impressed by Manchester United legend Sir Alex Ferguson's coaching philosophy and one of his quotes stand out for me: ‘Attack wins you games, defence wins you titles.' I showed this quote to the girls last night and drilled it into their heads that they will have to defend their goal with their lives to beat India. They probably got inspired by Sir Alex too and defended with all their might," added Menezes, whose team blocked as many as nine penalty corners against the Indians.

The top three sides from this tournament qualify for the Paris Games and besides Japan, the other two teams to have qualified are finalists, Germany and USA. Team India were understandably distraught as their Paris Olympic dream was shattered.

Skipper Savita was inconsolable, crying her heart out, even as her teammates hugged her in consolation. "Throughout the tournament, we converted our penalty corners nicely, but today we simply couldn't. This defeat is very difficult to digest. We never expected this. We had so many chances, but just couldn't score," Savita told reporters after the match.

This hurts: Schopman

India head coach Janneke Schopman simply could not comprehend how her team were unable to find that equaliser despite dominating the hour-long third-place match. "We didn't start well defensively, but that can happen. Then, we fought back well and dominated, but I don't know why we couldn't score. If I knew, then I wouldn't be standing here, because I would've given them that answer during the game and they would've scored. This hurts and when we will watch the Olympics at home on TV, it will hurt even more because this team definitely possess the quality to compete in Paris," said Schopman.