PARIS: India tottered in successfully defending a lead in the last quarter against Spain before sealing their second successive Olympic Games hockey bronze medal. A 2-1 triumph in the play-off is a sign of India narrowing the gap with the elite hockey nations after slumping to terrible lows in the past few decades.

It is also India’s second successive Olympic medal, something they had not achieved since 1972 Munich, making amends for the disastrous performance in the 2023 World Cup at home, when they failed to make the quarter-finals and questions were asked about the status of India among the top nations.

Bronze wasn’t the colour of a hockey medal India used to relish in the bygone days. When India first came back with bronze from Mexico 1968, it was akin to a national disaster, next only to the final India had lost in Rome 1960.

But Indian hockey has seen such lows that this second successive Olympic medal is a huge success and worthy of being hailed. Ending the 41-year medal eclipse at Tokyo spurred Indian hockey, but this achievement under Harmanpreet Singh’s captaincy promises resurgence.

Surprisingly for a team that pushed reigning World champions Germany close in the semi-finals, India were over-cautions against Spain, whom they were expected to push into a corner. While India were feeling the pressure of winning a medal, to match Tokyo, Spain played a relatively more open game and their fine trapping caused early problems for India.

It was a terrible foul of a stick-check on top of the circle – when several defenders were covering the striker’s view of the goal – that conceded the penalty stroke to see India slump behind in the 18th minute. Spanish captain Marc Miralles duly converted.

India were not rattled, and that showed the strength in their belief. Two penalty corner conversions by Harmanpreet (30th, 33rd minutes) put India where they ought to have been. But then began the tale of missed chances. The strikers began spraying the shots wide and began holding on to the ball. Also, four other penalty corners failed to land on target.

Come the last quarter and India decided to fall back and defend the lead. In the end, they virtually abandoned the desire of even venturing into rival territory.

It is difficult to argue with a winning team. On Thursday, when India retained the bronze they earned at Tokyo, not many would like to question the wisdom of falling back to defend for the entire last quarter. That India adopted this strategy against an outfit like Spain, in its current status, seemed to betray their confidence despite being ahead.

Falling back to defend against Great Britain when down to 10 players was one angle of a defensive strategy. Trying it again in the last quarter of the semi-final against Germany had an element of desperation. But when this got adopted for the third successive fixture, and that too against Spain, it was a sign of confusion as well.

Playing half-press in such manner and packing the entire 25-yard territory is a strategy teams occasionally use to frustrate all-out raids on their citadel, but India seemed to have made it an elementary plan in the bronze medal match.

India’s defence benefitted from the return of Amit Rohidas after he sat out the semis due to the red card he got against Great Britain. He also did well to take the sting out of the Spanish penalty corners, which India were very generous in conceding. With goalkeeper PR Sreejesh producing a sparkling show in his farewell match for India, Spain found it tough to breach the citadel.

A worrisome feature of the Indian defence in the closing stages of the match was that they occasionally kept pushing the ball back to the Spanish players, who kept persisting in all-out raids. Even when required to pass time, elementary strategy is to keep possession, which was not India’s frequent choice in the last few minutes – and that resulted in conceding three penalty corners in the last two minutes.

Just one shot past the tired defence and India’s game-plan could have been shattered. It was incredible that India held on to clinch the bronze medal without having to go through a shootout.

India coach Craig Fulton was delighted to win a medal, but said the colour was not satisfactory. “We’re not happy where we are. We wanted the one above and we didn’t get it. But this is the next best thing,” said the South African. “We’re proud of our ability to get up after the disappointments.’

Fulton said the match against Spain was tough. “It was a tough game, man. It really was tough. Spain threw everything at us. It was beautiful to finally get the result we got.”

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