“They did not play free-flowing style”: Menezes breaks down Japan’s tactics to outplay India in Olympic Qualifiers

As Kana Urata’s drag flick sent the ball through Savita Punia’s legs to find the bottom-left corner, the full capacity crowd at the Marang Gomke Jaipal Singh AstroTurf Hockey Stadium here seemed to have lost its voice.

Coach Jude Menezes’ side had just taken a 1-0 lead against India in the sixth minute of the match on Friday that would decide the team which joined Germany and USA for Paris Olympics from the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers. The 20-25 Japanese fans, sitting in the team and family box, could be heard loud and clear.

For the next 54 minutes, it was the host team that completely dominated the proceedings. Janneke Schopman’s team had plenty of chances, including nine Penalty Corners, but the Japanese defence stood strong and denied India an equaliser.

Menezes instructed his team to go for the aerial balls to break the Indian press. Whenever the Indians did have the ball, Japan kept its structure, stayed in a zonal shape, let the opponent go wide and pressed them from inside. It was that simple and perfectly executed.

Japan was in a similar position against the USA in the semifinals as it led 1-0 with eight minutes to go before conceding twice in quick succession from PCs. “The learning from the loss against the USA was to play better in the fourth quarter and that’s what we did. We had to bounce back pretty quickly, and sport is pretty cruel sometimes. I feel for India. It’s only one ticket so it is really tough,” said Menezes, who is a former Indian goalkeeper.

“We know there’s going to be pressure coming. Normally, teams might change, pull out their keeper, there will be a power player. Some structural changes will be happening. We talked about not getting fazed by anything,” is what the 52-year-old told his team before the final quarter.

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It was a high-pressure game for India, playing in front of the home crowd with the Olympic quota on the line, something which Menezes was well aware of and used to his team’s advantage. “I’ve played for India. I know what the pressure of expectation is. With a home game, there’s always an added pressure. Also, this was a must win game. We talked about putting India under more pressure,” he said.

“We went up in attack, we pressed higher. We said, ‘let’s hope for mistakes’ and it set them back for a bit. They did not play their free-flowing style and that was one of our tactical things that we said, ‘we gotta stop India running. If India runs, they’ll kill you,” he added.

The Cherry Blossoms have qualified for the Olympics for the sixth consecutive time and Menezes is aiming for a first-ever medal. “We just have to keep playing as many matches as we possibly can in the build-up to Paris because we’ve already talked to the girls about podium finishes. I don’t want to go as a participant. We want to go and try to do something special,” he said.