He is no gladiator – he has
become a household name – many would be having him as their screen savers,
while some as their ‘password’ !! - Vincent
Vanasch the Belgian goalkeeper who plays
for German club Rot-Weiss Köln and the
Belgium national team. Billions of
bilious blue blistering barnacles! Belgium’s favourite cultural export, the
nervous Captain Haddock of the Tintin series, could never have survived the
tension of the men’s Olympic hockey final.
The Red Lions, the best team in the world since the Rio Olympics, added
a gold medal to their World Cup, European and FIH Pro League titles after a
dramatic 1-1 draw with Australia was resolved by an even more dramatic penalty
shootout.
Australia will have to
wait another day to break their Olympic record of 17 gold medals, after the
Kookaburras agonisingly went down to Belgium in a penalty shootout. On Sunday,
Andrew Charter saved three goals against the Netherlands to progress past the
quarter-final. Four days later, the penalty shootout ended the Kookaburras’
hopes of winning their second gold medal in men’s hockey, 17 years after
winning in Athens. Australia’s defeat was a slow,
painful one.
Belgium defeated Australia
in a shootout to win gold in men’s field hockey. The score was tied 1-all at
the end of regulation time before Belgium won the shootout 3-2. Alexander
Hendrickx scored the penalty stroke that put Belgium ahead in the shootout and
Vincent Vanasch got the clinching save.
India won
bronze earlier in the day with a 5-4 victory over Germany. It was India’s first
field hockey medal since 1980. This
was India’s third bronze and 12th hockey medal overall at the Games. India’s 41-year-long wait for an Olympic medal
in hockey came to an end today when the
men’s hockey team beat Germany 5-4 to take the bronze medal at the Tokyo
Olympics. This was India’s first podium finish at the Games since their
gold-medal-winning run in 1980 Moscow Olympics.
India won
their first medal in Olympic hockey by beating Netherlands 3-0 in the finals of
the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. This was India’s first gold medal ever at the Olympics. India successfully defended their title four
years later in Los Angeles in 1932 and
bagged consecutive gold medals in the Olympics. In this tourney, India defeated USA 24-1, which continues to be
biggest margin of victory in the history Olympics hockey. The Dhyan Chand-led Indian side completed a
hat-trick of golds in Olympics by beating Germany 8-1 – the biggest margin in
Olympics hockey finals – in front of their home crowd in Berlin in 1936. India
continued their domination in the Games despite the 1940 and 1944 getting
cancelled due to the second World War. This was India’s first medal in Olympics
after independence and what made it sweeter was the fact that they had beaten
Great Britain 4-0 in the finals. At
Melbourne in 1956, the victory was sweeter as India beat Pakistan in the
finals. In 1960, India lost to Paki at Rome and got Silver. In 1964, India got it back defeating
Pakis at Tokyo but at Mexico in 1968,
India failed to make to finals and settled with a Bronze and in got Bronze
atgain at Munich in 1972 – in 1980 V Bhaskaran led team got Gold and now after
41 years, India beat Germany 5-4 to bag
their 12th medal in the Olympics.
Today at Tokyo, a video referral saved Jacob Whetton once, after
the video umpire found a foul from goal-keeper Vincent Vanasch after the
Australian struck the post. Given a reprieve, Whetton was denied again as
Belgium won the penalty shootout 3-2. Vanasch roared, Australia’s Kookaburras
slumped to the turf as others rallied around Whetton. For Belgium, their
victory came five years after they lost the gold medal match to Argentina in
Rio. Since then, they had claimed almost everything world hockey has to offer
and came into the match ranked behind Australia as second in the world. As
Belgium’s players roared with triumph, New Zealand coach Shane McLoud took
himself to the dug out and buried his head in his hands and cried. Twenty
metres away Australia’s players struggled to contain their emotions.
Some of those
who watched could have some Qs on the Shoot out – in Football (as also in
Hockey) earlier, we have seen a single fierce stroke by the striker in having
to defeat the lone Goalie for a goal – that is the sudden death ‘shoot out’ –
today it was not so !!
To determine
matches that end in a tie, a penalty stroke competition was used. Similar to a
penalty shoot-out in association football, teams alternately take penalty
strokes, subject to the normal rules, to determine the winner. Each team is
represented by any five players chosen from the team sheet submitted prior to
the match and the order in which they
participate is also chosen. Players from each team take alternate strokes in a
best-of-five competition until a team has won or 10 strokes have been
completed. The goal used is selected by the umpires and the team to take the
first penalty stroke is determined by a coin toss. In the result of a tie after
10 strokes, the same players will continue to take strokes in a sudden death
format until a winner is established.
Not any longer –
the rules have been tweaked, not recently !
.. .. similar to a penalty shot in ice hockey,
the attacker gets a chance to run with the ball in a one-on-one situation
against the goalkeeper. The attacker starts on the 23-metre line with the ball
and the goalkeeper starts on the goal line. When the whistle is blown, both can
move and the attacker has 8 seconds to score a goal. Unlike a penalty stroke or penalty corner
there are no restrictions on strokes the attacker may use to score and a goal
is scored in the usual way. If the attacker commits an offence, the ball travels
outside the field of play or 8 seconds elapse before the ball crosses the line
a goal is not awarded. If the goalkeeper unintentionally fouls the attacker
then the penalty shoot-out is re-taken; in the event the foul was intentional a
penalty stroke is awarded.
Just like its predecessor,
the penalty shoot-out uses five players chosen from each team against a
goalkeeper. It is a best-of-five competition and, if scores are tied at the end
of this, it progresses to sudden-death with the same players until a winner is established.
5th Aug 2021.
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