ATLANTA: The best Came right at the end, but a bit too late. Just as everyone seemed to be running out of ideas on how to beat Spain, who looked stronger and stronger with every match, India showed the way, but only after they were eliminated from the semifinals.
This is not the first time that the Indians have played their best when the pressure is off and the door has already been shut on them. Very clearly, the team performs below par when under pressure and plays the natural free flowing game when there is nothing to worry about Maybe this is the area that Coach Cedric D’Souza needs to look into even more than the technical areas like penalty comer conversion. After all, everything boils down to how well the team handles pressure.
How else can one explain of defeat at the hands of Argentina, who after their first two matches, have hardly been a team that looks a claimant for a semifinal berth.
Coming back to the last league match in India’s pool, Spain, who had thus far been unbeaten in the tournament, wilted. D’Souza, when queried whether Spain was hot going all out since they had already qualified, was understandably irritated and said, “You can ask the Spanish coach about that”
Article extracted from this publication >> July 31, 1996
