It is a cruel blow for Indian hockey. Almost three years since the Indian women's team finished fourth at the Tokyo Olympics, they suffered a devastating loss in the third-place playoff against Japan at the FIH Women's Hockey Olympic Qualifiers in Ranchi and will miss the Paris Olympics.
While it seemed like Indian hockey and the women's team were starting a positive chapter with their performances in Tokyo, Japan endured a tough campaign at home. The women's team lost all their matches. Now, under head coach Jude Menezes, the former India goalkeeper, Japan have turned their fortunes around and qualified for the Paris Games with a 1-0 win over India.
We take a look at India's takeaways from what eventually turned out to be a dismal tournament:
Inconsistent performances hamper India
In a tournament where the top three teams were guaranteed qualification for the Paris Olympics, India ended up fourth. They did not play to their strengths against the USA but did well in the next two games to win them. They lost a close semifinal against the Germans and then failed to break down Japan's defence.
After being pretty ordinary against the USA, India found the goals, mainly through Salima Tete and Udita Duhan, to win against New Zealand and Italy. India qualified for the semifinal, but it was evident that they needed improvement, in terms of other players contributing.
They did that against Germany, where the team finally clicked as a unit. India defended well and took their chances under pressure with the match ending 2-2 in regulation time. But strangely, the team faltered in the next match against Japan where their attack and defence (at least in the first half) struggled.
India conceded two penalty corners in the opening five minutes of the first quarter and Japan scored from the second chance. Not just the goal-scoring chance, India allowed Japan to dominate in the first half, leaving plenty of open spaces in midfield and defence.
Even the best falter at crunch time
The inconsistency also came to bite arguably India's two best players from this tournament - Salima Tete and Udita - who both had off days against Japan. Salima, whose finishing improved massively over the year, missed a golden chance in the dying minutes of the match. She had the ball inside the circle on the left, she did well to control it and went for a shot but missed the target.
There were two Indian players -- Nisha Warsi and Jyothi in front of goal and ready to receive the pass but it ended up being a bad choice to shoot and a bad miss from Salima. In terms of chance creation as well, she didn't do enough when her team needed her the most.
Udita, meanwhile, was guilty of leaving too much space behind her in the backline which allowed Japan to dominate the left side of the field. She missed a couple of her tackles in the opening quarter, which resulted in Japan entering the circle from the left and creating goal-scoring chances. While she was successful with her penalty corners in the previous matches, she failed against Japan despite multiple attempts. Eventually, India did not convert any of their nine penalty corners.
No plan B, and sometimes no plan at all
This has been a feature in Schopman's tenure -- India's failure to come up with a plan when teams defend deep. The matches against Japan and the USA are classic examples of India struggling to break down deep defences. Schopman has said earlier that the players needed to be smart enough to break a crowded defence. She knew this is a problem area, but it seemed she didn't do enough to fix it.
When India were not able to find an equaliser against the USA and Japan, frustration took over and they resorted to just smashing on the ball into the circle and hoping an attacker wins a penalty corner or gets hold of a rebound. That isn't a bad option, but they should've looked at creating chances from the flanks and tried using the aerial ball.
Players from the best teams know how to pick the space inside the circle even when it's crowded. This can be unlocked with good coaching and players finding composure. India do quick transitions and penetrate the circle multiple times, but often falter with the final ball. This was not only evident in this tournament but also in the Asian Games semifinal against China, where India just didn't know how to react after going behind.
No proven goalscorer
There was no Rani Rampal. Forward Vandana Katariya was out injured. Gurjit Kaur, the team's penalty corner specialist was also not there. Deep Grace Ekka, the team's other penalty corner specialist was also not included in the squad.
In the absence of key goal-scorers, the burden of scoring was on the likes of Salima, Deepika, Udita and Sangita Kumari. Salima and Udita scored at crucial junctures for the team in this tournament, but there was hardly any support from others. This team needed its young support cast to come to the party. Deepika, Jyoti, Vaishnavi Vittal Phalke, Navneet Kaur and Sonika could've pushed more to create and convert.
Schopman fails to deliver
India finished joint ninth in the 2022 World Cup, failed to win the Olympic quota at the Asian Games and now have completely missed the boat to Paris after finishing fourth in the Qualifiers. For Schopman, the clear objective after the high of Tokyo Olympics was to take the team to the next level where they could fight for the titles.
Qualifying for the Olympics was a bare minimum, this team had to be better than that. For all the talk about her attacking style of hockey, this team just didn't win enough in the big tournaments. It was not a case of just one off day on the field, which could have been the case at the Asian Games, but at the World Cup and in the Olympic Qualifiers, the team didn't perform to the level that was expected.
Under her, the team played good hockey, they had an identity, but it amounts to nothing when they don't qualify for the Olympics, which is the biggest stage for the sport. India may not be consistently producing the best of talents but the current set of players, a lot of them who featured at the Tokyo Olympics, are good enough to compete at the international level. With the Olympic hopes now gone, it's hard to see how Schopman can continue in the head coach role.