Why Olympic Semifinalist Spain Won’t be a Stroll in the Pitch for Indian Men?
Spain are one of the rapidly improving sides around – the Max Caldas-coached side have showcased on so many occasions that they are far better than their number eight world ranking and can knock the stuffing out of the best in the business – ample evidence of it was witnessed at the 2024 Paris Olympics where they stunned Olympic silver medallist Germany 2-0 in the pool phase, showed the Olympic exit door to 2021 Olympic champions Belgium 3-2 in the quarterfinal, and even took the lead in the Olympic semifinal against India before faltering by the odd goal in three.
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The Redsticks for sure, won’t be a stroll in the pitch for hosts India, who are one of the exciting sides around and are on a high having won their back-to-back Olympic bronze medals. The Craig Fulton-coached Indian side would be wary about the ‘Spanish might’ if their performances in the Sydney leg of the Pro League was anything to go by.
At Sydney, Spain showed their were up for the challenge beating hosts and higher ranked Australia twice as posing a tough fight to the Netherlands despite going down twice at the Sydney Olympic Park – the absence of key players – former captain Marc Miralles and experienced forward Alvaro Iglesius – did not seem have much impact as they exhibited adequate bench strength to cut an impressive figure in the Sydney leg.
Indian men would have to watch out for the young troika of Nicholas Alvarez, Pau Petchame and Pol Cabre Verdiell all have been instrumental in Spain bagging a bronze medal at the 2023 Junior Men’s World Cup at Kuala Lumpur. Indian hockey lovers would remember Nicholas Alvarez, who inflicted maximum damage, scoring twice in their 3-1 win over India in the bronze medal play-off of the 2023 Junior Men’s World Cup – he scored 5 goals in that showpiece event.
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The young forward scored a crucial goal in Spain’s 1-0 win over Australia as well one against the Netherlands. His goal against the Kookaburras reeked off opportunism – he scored a goalmouth melee in that match. Goalkeeper Luis Calzado had a great campaign at Sydney alongside the deep defence comprising Pau Cunill, Alejandro Alonso and Marc Recasens. Besides Nicholas Alvarez, the Spanish forwardline would count on the experience of Jose Basterra, Joaquín Menini and Marc Reyne as well as young strikers in Pere Amat and Andreas Rafi.
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The Indian players fresh from a highly productive stint in the HIL, would look up to the Abhishek-Sukhjeet Singh combo to fire on all cylinders upfront – both did a fine job for HIL champions Shrachi Rarh Bengal Tigers. The quarter of former skipper Manpreet Singh, Rajkumar Pal, Nilakanta Sharma, Vivek Sagar Prasad Shamsher Singh alongside talented youngster Rajinder Singh would have the larger responsibility of repelling the Spanish raids. The Indian deep defence would be marshalled by ‘Sarpanch’ (Harmanpreet Singh) alongside Jarmanpreet Singh, Jugraj Singh and Amit Rohidas, who had a memorable HIL, with Krishan Pathak in the cage.
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India had bettered Spain at the Paris Olympic semifinal but Spain would be up for sweet revenge at the Kalinga Stadium – from the Indian perspective a strong Pro League would be key, while the Redsticks would strive to build on the good work carried out at Sydney leg.
