The Indian men's hockey team battled for ages to win their first hockey medal at the Games since 1980, beating Germany 5-4 in a bronze medal match at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday, when they won their eight Olympic gold medals. This will be India's fifth medal at the Tokyo Games, after medals Mirabai Chanu, PV Sindhu, Lovlina Borgohain and a certain medal for wrestler Ravi Kumar Dahiya.
Overall, it is India's third bronze and 12th medal at the Games, ahead of Germany as the country with the most medals in men's hockey. Australia and Belgium will battle it out for gold later on Thursday.
India kept their calm after defensive errors as they trounced Germany 3-1 at one stage in the first half. Simranjit Singh, who replaced Lalit Upadhyay, scored two goals, while Hardik Singh, Harmanpreet Singh and Rupinder Pal Singh scored one goal each.
Germany were the faster team from the block, making captain Florian Fuchs clear his intention to give the team one final push into the team before pushback. His intensity was immediately rewarded, as Taimur Oruz found a stray ball that, a combination of Surender Kumar and Shamsher Singh, did not go right ahead of Sreejesh, and put Germany ahead in the second minute.
India responded well, earning their first penalty corner (PC) two minutes later, but Rupinder Pal Singh had his drag flick closed by the first rusher. India were able to maintain a single-goal deficit in the first quarter thanks to Sreejesh, however, they closed angles to ensure that Niklas Wellen and Mats Grambusch did not get clean shots on goal. India survived PC's barrage at the end of the first quarter, four in a row, to retain the score at 1-0.
India leveled two minutes into the second quarter, Simranjeet intercepted a pass in the middle at the top of the circle, swung and shot a sharp reverse hit past goalkeeper Alexander Stadler. With six minutes to go for half-time, the game exploded to life, helped by a few defensive lapses from India at the start.
First, Valen is allowed to pass past Christopher Ruhr and reverse slap the ball off Sreejesh. Surender failed to score for the first time in the 27th minute, after two German attackers put pressure on him and the resulting pass was buried in the goal by Benedict Fark. Seconds later, India earned their second PC, and Harmanpreet's hard flick was saved by Stadler, but Hardik quickly went through the injection spot to slot the ball home. A minute later, India earned another PC, and this time Harmanpreet drilled it low to Stadler's left.
With matches being evenly drawn at half-time, the opening move was always going to go into the third quarter, with the heat and humidity at OE Stadium especially during the morning matches. Mandeep Singh received a nudge in the back from Lukas Windfeder, and a penalty stroke resulted in not only being converted by Rupinder, but Germany's pointless opposition as he lost his referral. India's dominance in that stage was further strengthened in the 34th minute when Gurjant Singh swept to the right and fed a pleasant short pass across the goal with Simranjit in hand for a tip-in.
India could have taken a 5-3 lead, but a few failed stops allowed them to convert one of the three PCs they won in a row. Meanwhile, poor conversion of Germany's PC continued at the other end, rising to seven within the third quarter.
Those failures were set in exactly three minutes into the final quarter - India made the mistake of falling deep into the defense and conceding a leg inside the circle - as Windfeeder made a low drag flick before Sreejesh's legs were pulled out. sent to the goal. India had a golden opportunity in the 51st minute with Hawke's yellow card, but Mandeep failed to beat Stadler in a one-on-one encounter. Three minutes later, Sreejesh was penalized for shutting down Ruhr as he prepared to receive an air pass inside the circle, but the Indian keeper refused a windfeeder this time.
India pulled off their keeper with less than five minutes on the clock, and even won a PC with three minutes to spare, but India persevered as Germany attempted a turnaround. With six seconds on the clock, he found a foot inside the circle and Windfeeder's drag flick was overcome by Sreejesh, who threw his glove high in celebration, knowing that time was up on Germany.
Indian women will play for the bronze medal against Great Britain on Friday morning, giving them a chance to become the only nation to win a medal in both men's and women's hockey at these Games.