With monkey off their backs, Indian hockey team now look for bigger glory in London Olympics

With Delhi conquered, India have their eyes all set on London, writes The Times Of India after Indian men’s hockey team booked their berth to London Olympics by beating France comprehensively 8-1 in the final of Olympic qualifier, with drag-flicker Sandeep Singh scoring a fiver.

“It took 17 minutes for India to score their first goal, and after that it was mostly one-way traffic as the hosts answered the prayers of thousands inside the stadium, and millions all over the country, with style and panache here on Sunday,” writes the national daily, adding, “ Egged on by thousands of supporters at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium, India slammed three goals in the first half and five more in the second to make it to the Olympics four years after the humiliation of missing out on a berth in Beijing.”

Meanwhile The Hindu adds that the methodical approach and the rock solid self-belief of the Michael Nobbs-coached Indian hockey team finally paid off as the side capped its chain of sterling performances in the Olympic qualifier with a thumping 8-1 win over France in the final.

“The title victory at the National Stadium here on Sunday not only ensured the return of the Indian team to the Olympics after the 2004 Athens Games, but also healed the wounds of the four-year-old ‘Chile horror' when the country had failed to qualify for the Olympics for the first time in 80 years. It also helped lessen the home fans' disappointment arising out of the women team's failure in making the trip to London,” writes The Hindu.

According to Indian Express what was heartening to see was that India won by playing an attacking brand of hockey that had traditionally been India’s forte, but was lost somewhere in the last decade during a musical chair of foreign coaches. “It took an Australian, in coach Michael Nobbs, to make the players realise their strength. As India beat France 8-1, taking their tournament goal tally to 44 from 6 games, around the Indian team bench there was a consensus that the man responsible was the ever-smiling coach. Penalty corner specialist Sandeep Singh’s five goals exemplified the team’s ruthlessness. The Indians kept pressing the French though the result was never quite in doubt. While preparing for this tournament, Nobbs had repeatedly reminded the team that only a four-goal margin was considered a winning lead in modern hockey,” adds the paper.


Meanwhile players were all happy to get the monkey off their backs, writes TOI, adding And they were happy to erase the bad memories of failing to qualify for the Beijing Olympics four years back. “The best part is that today we deleted the bad memories of that failure, our loss against England which dashed our Beijing hopes. We are now looking forward to London,” said Chetri, looking quite happy with the performance of his team.

He said the showing of the team proved that the team selected for the qualifiers was the best available one. “The way the boys played today was incredible. We came to the tournament knowing that we are a good side, better than the rest. We were confident. But we preferred to keep quiet and let our performance do the talking. There were some selection issues, but nobody should talk about it anymore.”