13 August,2024 07:40 AM IST | Mumbai | Ashwin Ferro
Manpreet Singh (right) makes a vital clearance in deep defence while goalkeeper PR Sreejesh (in yellow) watches closely during India’s Olympic quarter-final against Great Britain in Paris
While skipper Harmanpreet Singh and retiring goalkeeper PR Sreejesh have been heralded in the wake of Indian hockey's second consecutive Olympic bronze medal at the Paris Games, one man's heroic efforts have gone under the radar.
Midfielder Manpreet Singh, 32, who led India to the bronze medal at 2020 Tokyo Olympics, played a stellar role in ensuring the men's team secured back-to-back Olympic medals for the first time in 52 years.
Also Read: And that's a wrap in Paris!
Team India were in the red, quite literally, when deep defender Amit Rohidas was given the marching orders in the 17th minute of the Paris Olympics quarter-final against Great Britain. It was Manpreet, who took Rohidas's place and formed the team's last line of defence along with Sreejesh as Team India hung on for a marathon 47 minutes - an act unheard of in modern hockey - to take the match into the shootout, where India prevailed 4-2. Manpreet admits it was unprecedented. "During practice, we sometimes play with a man short in match simulation, where one of our players gets a green card [two-minute suspension] or a yellow card [minimum five-minute suspension]. But that's for a brief period. To play for 47 minutes with a man short is almost impossible in today's highly competitive hockey environment. But we somehow pulled it off purely on our grit and determination," Manpreet tells mid-day from his home in Mithapur, Punjab, as he juggles a series of felicitation functions along with his teammates. "Firstly, Amit is a very nice guy, never aggressive. That foul [raised stick that struck British forward Will Calnan on his face] was totally unintentional. But when we saw that Calnan was play-acting by holding his face and wriggling on the ground to ensure the referee gave Amit the red card, it angered us as a team. We felt cheated and we decided that come what may, we won't let these guys win now," added Manpreet, who time and again made brilliant interceptions in front of Sreejesh, frustrating Great Britain's forwards.
"I've been playing with Sreejesh for 14 years, so we know each other's game too well. We were ready to defend with our lives. I told Sree to keep shouting out his instructions to me along with his trademark cuss words so as to pump me up even more. He did exactly that and together we held on till the final whistle. In fact, after the shootout, [British forward] Sam Ward came up to me and said, âyou guys were brilliant today, make sure you go on and win a medal,' " revealed Manpreet.
India went on to lose the semi-final 2-3 to Germany, but beat Spain 2-1 in the bronze medal match.
Sreejesh's retirement now leaves Manpreet as the most experienced player in the Indian hockey team with 378 international caps to his name. And the veteran midfield marshal has some invaluable words of advice for Indian hockey, going forward. "We need to score more field goals. Penalty corners have been our strength with Harmanpreet being a drag flick specialist, but field goals is something we have thrived on over the years. In Paris, we didn't score too many field goals though," concluded Manpreet.
Goals scored 15
Goals conceded 12
Penalty corner goals 9
Goals off penalty strokes 3
Total field goals 3
