By Forrest Crellin
PARIS (Reuters) – The veteran India men’s hockey team beat New Zealand 3-2 in Pool B on the first day of the Paris Olympics tournament on Saturday, as stalwart goalkeeping for both teams kept the score low with India’s winner coming on a penalty shot.
India broke a 41-year medal drought in Olympic men’s hockey with a bronze in Tokyo three years ago, triggering hopes that a ninth gold medal for the once dominant power in the sport might be on the cards in Paris.
“In the dying moment, my defense did a wonderful job to stop them from scoring. As the legends have said, forwards win matches but the defense wins tournaments,” India’s goalkeeper PR Sreejesh said.
“One special thing is that in the Olympic games, you can’t take anything back. You know, any team can play better games on a particular day. So it’s important for us to just focus on our game and look forward to the match,” Sreejesh said.
The enthusiasm of the crowds in the open air stands has kept the players energised throughout the wet start to the tournament and well into the closing minutes of each opening match as the rain kicked up in trails behind the ball on a waterlogged pitch.
In the other early evening match, a dominant men’s German side silenced the local crowds chants of “Allez les bleues” with an 8-2 thumping of hosts France to give them the goal differential lead in Pool A.
South Africa also gave the dynamic Netherlands a scare after the Dutch team racked up a four-goal lead before the end of the half but struggled to apply pressure after the break, conceding two more goals to win 5-3 in Group A opener.
Second-ranked Britain walloped Spain 4-0 in the early Pool A game while in Pool B reigning champions Belgium won 2-0 against an Ireland team that missed qualifying for the Tokyo Games and Australia edged Argentina 1-0 in the tightest game so far.
So far 22 goals have been scored in the men’s Pool A, compared with only eight in Pool B.
The women’s tournament starts later on Saturday with a rematch of the last Pan-American Games final as the United States face off with Argentina, while the Netherlands compete against hosts France.
(Reporting by Forrest Crellin; Editing by Ken Ferris and Hugh Lawson)
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