Youth Hockey World Cup: Re-rise of Belgium and India sets story for semi-finals | Hockey news

BHUBANESWAR: When Belgium won its first Olympic medal, India was not yet playing in the Games. It was the seventh round in 1920 at the Belgian home in Antwerp, with only four teams participating in the hockey event. But that is not the essential part.
For the next 96 years, Belgium stayed out of the international podium, including the painful “ineligible” badge at the 1980-2004 Olympics. That’s when they decided to stop the slide. But it’s a separate story for another day.
At the Ice Hockey Olympics, the scale of the tsunami has changed since the 1920 bronze medal in Belgium. India participated in its hockey team in the Games for the first time in 1928 and turned the field into one-way traffic with gold in six consecutive rounds. But India’s “golden” hockey crop also hit fruitless after 1980. However, that too is a separate story.
Since the 19th century, Belgium has achieved everything that its master plan had begun to address sometime in the 1990s, and gained momentum in the late 2000s. They are the reigning world champions and Olympic champions and have also been European champions. This week, they are due to win one silver item missing from their CV – the Junior World Cup (JWC).
At the 2016 JWC in Lucknow, as a crowd swinging in Lucknow’s stands pushed the home team on a journey, Belgium returned home with broken hearts as Indian captain Harjeet Singh, coach Harendra Singh and their sons danced in the hallways.
Over the next five years, times have changed more than anyone expected. The JWC was constantly delayed; The practices once held as the next Sardar Singh fell into oblivion; Harendra moved from coaching Indian Juniors to older women, then men, and currently on the U.S. senior team. And the devastating fact is that the world saw a pandemic and is still threatened in many ways by the threat of new mutations in the coronavirus.
One man who has survived this test of time is Jeroen Baart. The Belgian Junior coach in 2016 is still at the helm of their junior team.
Baart will face a familiar enemy in a familiar war zone as his Belgian team seeks to bury the 2016 demons in a semi-final match against India on Wednesday at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.
“Both countries have invested heavily in hockey,” Baart told reporters before the match. “Looking at Belgium, how they increased the budget and did things for the players, the next generation is a strong generation.
“For India, the Hockey India League (HIL) was a huge boost for the sport in India. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been there in recent years. I hope it can come back, so (that) it can help these boys perform. Better, their rise to the top. Not just older players, but also for younger players, “he added.
Baart hit the nail on the head. India benefited from HIL, which began in 2013, in the form of a JWC win in 2016. The player harvest, which played five versions of HIL until 2017, helped India build and eventually return to the Olympic podium after 41 years. Bronze in Tokyo.
But the juniors of 2021 were largely unknown to hockey fans until the start of the tournament, which was disappointing for the hosts.
The shock loss against France shook the team, led by senior coach Graham Reid just before the JWC. They woke up in time to defeat Canada and Poland, and finished second in Group B to reach the quarters.

(Image credit: Hockey India Twitter)
A week after the tournament, players like Sanjay, Araijeet Singh Hundal and Uttam Singh have demanded attention with their skills. But coach Reid isn’t willing to read about it too much, as the team’s “real test” is later today.
“The real test will come tomorrow,” Reid said as he spoke to reporters at Kalinga Stadium. “A team that can play a natural game is a winner.”
But it’s not going to be easy. People under the age of 21 can turn from stylish to reckless in a matter of minutes. Statistics 13-1 and 8-2 against Canada and Poland were highlighting. But the cards and the ban on the game against the Poles came from Indian players like school boys in blue uniforms.
“It’s one of the hard parts when coaching someone younger,” Reid said. “Patience is not inherent in young boys. Kids of that age want things to happen. We try to instill in them to try to stay patient, move the ball and be disciplined … But there is a fine line between them that doesn’t interfere with their flow.”
In the same breath, Reid also showed Belgian class and vulnerability.
“You see the DNA coming from their older team, and the older team is number one in the world … (But) You also saw the vulnerability that the Malays took advantage of, and we’re going to do the same.”
Malaysia was close to shocked by the 2016 JWC runners-up before keeping them in a 1-1 draw. But the junior Red Lions still managed to top the A-pool before Malaysia with a goal difference.
This vulnerability of the Belgians is also mentioned in the words of the well-known hockey journalist Jean Francois Jourdain.
“I’m not sure they can be considered India’s favorites with a home advantage and probably the fact that there is no real star player on the (Belgian) team. They have to do (things) with a joint effort,” said Jourdain. , speaks to TimesofIndia.com about Belgium.
“The young Red Lions don’t really have star players. They’re promising players, but most of them are trying to get a place in the Belgian Honor Division.

(PTI image)
“I wouldn’t put too much money on Belgium,” he added.
Besides, India cannot ignore a category of attackers like Thibeau Stockbroekx. However, he is the only player on the Belgian team with experience from the senior team.

(Image credit: Thibeau Stockbroekx Instagram)
“I think this is going to be a great game … We’ve analyzed (the Indian game). They’re really good at the counter. They play at their own stadium and they have a lot of passion in their game,” said Thibeau. when TimesofIndia.com contacted.

India’s veto flicker, especially Sanjay and Araijeet Singh Hundal, have shown a great form of goal – forcing opponents to watch out for India in penalty kicks (PC). Belgium’s concerns are in line.

(ANI image)
“We trust our goalkeepers and our PC defense team. We’ll do everything we can to stop them, but first of all, we don’t want to give them a PC because I think it’s a weapon for them.” said Stockbroekx.
But India misses the playing skills of 2019 youth Olympics star Maninder Singh, who has been left out of the tournament due to a thigh injury. Bobby Singh Dhami is booked for the replacement.
The tournament is still officially closed to spectators. A handful of invited, schoolchildren and participating teams in the stands bring some joy. But that’s nothing compared to 2016, when storms in the Lucknow crowd almost shook Belgian feet.
“I think no one on our team, except the coach, has been here (in India) before. It’s a great stadium. None of us have played in a stadium with a capacity of 16,000,” said Stockbroekx, which has otherwise unfinished business with India. .
His older brother Gregory was part of the 2016 team that lost the final to India. His repeated pain echoes in a message he sent to Thibouis.

“This time India will not win. Do your best to beat them,” Gregory read in a message to his brother.
That and the re-emergence of the two teams in world hockey will determine the story of this semi-final match.