Just three seconds. That’s all India needed on Monday to draw with Germany and punch in its best result in Olympic men’s field hockey in 20 years.
But in those three seconds, Germany captain Martin Haner lashed in a hit-and-hope shot from long range which deflected off Christopher Ruhr, hit the post high, and went in.
Ruhr was chased along the sideline by his overjoyed teammates in certain anticipation of a 2-1 win. Moments later, it was official.
The Indians stood around in disbelief at a cruel finish to a pool match in which they held their own against the defending Olympic champions.
Had they drawn, it would have been their best result since a 1-1 draw against the same opposition in the same round in the 1996 Atlanta Games. Germany was the defending champ back then, too.
The Indians got limited sympathy from their coach Roelant Oltmans.
Those three seconds are still part of the game. Not just the three seconds, but the last couple of minutes, we didn’t stick to the structures we normally do. All of a sudden, people are changing the plan according to their own ideas. That’s what went wrong. We showed performance-wise there’s nothing wrong, but in the details we still need to improve.Roelant Oltmans, Coach-India