FIH Pro League: India suffers humiliating 0-8 loss agains...

Indian men’s hockey might have had its nemesis in Australia through the ages, but the team lived through a fresh 60-minute nightmare at the Birsa Munda Stadium on Thursday, suffering an 8- 0 humiliation against Argentina in its second FIH Pro League outing.

This was India’s joint-biggest defeat in international competitions, equalling identical losses to the Netherlands (1985) and Australia (2010). It was also India’s biggest ever loss to Argentina,

In a game that was equal parts surreal and ridiculous, India appeared to be in a trance and could barely put stick to ball even as the Argentines turned up the heat on the field. The start was fairly normal, but the Indians looked like they were suffering from a collective mental and physical shutdown soon after.

Missed strokes

The first ominous signs came when Harmanpreet Singh fluffed consecutive penalty strokes in the 13th minute, sending the ball slow enough to the left of Tomas Santiago for the goalkeeper to easily pad it away.

A counter through the middle, two quick passes and Tomas Ruiz’s backhand went over Suraj Karkera’s head into the net. A penalty corner a minute later, and Tomas Domene made it 2-0 inside the first 15 minutes.

The break seemed to turn off the lights on the Indians. There was no attack, no defence and no presence. There were bizarre happenings — Nilam Sanjeep Xess back-passed into an empty Indian circle with two Argentina forwards, and Lucio Mendez happily accepted the gift.

Credit is also due to Argentina, which made full use of the confusion in Indian ranks, shaking off their markers, forcing it to spread wide and open up space all over the field, going 7-0 at half time.

The second half was a contrast, not so much in India’s performance as in Argentina being seemingly content with the scoreline and pulling back on the intensity. Domene got one in the final minute to round off his four-peat.