And then there were two – the table-topper against possibly the best team in the tournament. There won’t be much time in the turnaround for the finalists after two intensely contested semifinal tussles, just the day before. Rarh Bengal Tigers will go head-to-head with Hyderabad Toofans in the Hockey India League (HIL) final here at the Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium on Saturday.
An hour after clinically dispatching Soorma Hockey Club, Pasha Gademan, head coach of Toofans, pulled the players and staff together for a post-match review meeting just before midnight. Later today, they will gather once again, hours before the title-decider for its final pre-match briefing.
Looking ahead to the final, Gademan said, “I think we are the team who can play the most complete hockey and they are the team who knows best. They’re a little bit more limited, but they know very well what they can do.”
For the better part of its semifinal against Tamil Nadu Dragons, the Tigers didn’t play the best hockey but did just enough to stay in the game. It failed to convert its eight penalty corners, was a man down for 10 minutes but dug deep to force a draw, before prevailing in the penalty shoot-out. Skipper Rupinder Pal Singh didn’t hide from it. “Semifinal matches are usually the ugliest games. For us, the win was important either in regulation time or in the penalty shoot-out,” said the veteran.
Against an in-form Toofans, who are unbeaten in eight matches in regulation time, Rupinder and Tigers wouldn’t mind if they pull through, even if they don’t play eye-catching hockey.
Rupinder was pleased that forward Sam Lane got his well-deserved first goal of the tournament against Dragons, before the final. While it was wasteful from the penalty corners in the semifinal, the form of its forwards Abhishek Nain, Lane and Sukhjeet Singh along with the experienced midfielders will be key to unlocking Toofans’ defence.
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Toofans’ attack is led by the experienced Tim Brand and young Arshdeep Singh, who earned his maiden call-up to the Indian senior team. In the final, the 20-year-old Arshdeep will bring the flair to complement Brand’s finishing prowess up front.
Tigers’ coach Colin Batch cautioned against conceding goals along the baseline, stating that the defence needed to ‘tidy up’ before the final. After surviving the shoot-out, Batch would hope his team could get over the line in regulation time.
Key match-up
Both Tigers and Toofans are the two best penalty corner-scoring teams in the tournament with the latter pulling ahead by 13 to 12. Tigers has the most effective drag-flicker in Jugraj Singh, who tops the charts with nine, while Toofans has the duel threat in Gonzalo Piellat (6) and Amandeep Lakra (4).
The 23-year-old Amandeep packs plenty of power in his drag-flicks and will feel confident after scoring in two successive outings, including the opening goal in the semifinal, giving Vincent Vanasch no chance to save it.
Faced against an onslaught at the death by Soorma, Toofans’s penalty corner defence was excellently led by Brand, Sumit and Rajinder Singh. And if the ball managed to get past them Bikramjit Singh repeatedly bailed them out with his saves.
The numbers also reflect how strong they have been in shutting out drag-flickers. In its last eight matches, Toofans has conceded only six penalty corner goals from 53 tries – swelled by the 10 conceded in the last quarter against Soorma.
In what is billed as the battle between a team that gets the job done and a team that plays ‘complete hockey’, it will likely be a final of fine margins.
I don’t think the title of your article matches the content lol. Just kidding, mainly because I had some doubts after reading the article.