Lee Morton sat on the blue pitch for long minutes without moving. Some colleagues stood stunnedly watching India’s celebrations, hands on their heads. Others dropped to their knees, unable to take it in.
A shootout loss to India in the quarter-finals means that Great Britain’s men will have to wait another 40 years to break their Olympic drought. But this was undoubtedly the most agonizing exit since that wonderful moment in Seoul in 1988.
“It’s going to hurt for a long time,” said Northern Ireland captain David Ames. “If we’re honest with ourselves, we haven’t been as clinical as we want to, or need to be, if we want to be standing on podiums.”
GB entered this tournament full of promise. The mood music was peppy under head coach Paul Revington’s persistently positive, Bazball-esque rule, as the team rose to second place in the world rankings. And when India’s Amit Rohidas went down early in the second quarter, GB had all the advantages.
However, all of that potential and one-man advantage were dashed in the second half and shootout, when the world’s finest goalie, Sreejesh Parattu Raveendran, played up to his reputation and ruined Great Britain’s Olympic dream.
“It’s what great goalkeepers do,” explained Ames. “They stand up when it is necessary. “Big moments are important, especially when it comes to competitions and knockout rounds.”
Morton, a 29-year-old Glaswegian half-back who has been enjoying an international rebirth under Revington, may have reached the end of his Olympic career. His equaliser before half-time came after Rohidas was sent off for an upraised stick in the face of Will Calnan, only for India’s captain, Harmanpreet Singh, to defy expectations by giving India the lead from a penalty corner.
The role that Morton plays on the side exemplifies Revington’s style, which is tactically adaptable. He defends, he attacks, and here he was waiting three meters out to meet Gareth Furlong’s cross and beat Sreejesh for his third goal of the tournament with all the poacher’s instinct of Gary Lineker when he was at the height of his England career.
That ought to have been the impetus for GB to pick up the pace and win the match, but India and Sreejesh had other plans in mind. However, India’s goalkeeper was seeing the ball like a beachball and was able to defend against everything that was thrown at him. The second half was a one-way traffic for Glasgow. For the one and only time that he was defeated, it was by a shot from Rupert Shipperley, and the ball rebounded off of a post.
GB stormed up field with five minutes remaining in the last quarter of a tumultuous match, but Sreejesh made yet another stop of the tournament, this time turning away Calnan’s furious shot with a fantastic save. And it was GB’s final opportunity. Even after the game was over, the fans of India rejoiced as if they had already won. Sreejesh was their “magic card” in the shootout, so it’s possible that they already had it, and it’s also possible that GB was aware of it.
There is nothing more amazing than a hockey shootout. Attacker vs goalkeeper, eight seconds on the clock, you begin on the 23-meter line, and each player will have five spins. First to take the stage was James Albery, who drew Sreejesh and then flicked past him before roaring to the crowd in a manner reminiscent of Stuart Pearce. Sukhjeet Singh scored, Harmanpreet equalized the score, and Zach Wallace scored to make the score 2-2.
Poor Conor Williamson, who had been pushed away from the goal by Sreejesh, went up and blasted over the bar in a last-ditch effort to score before the referee blew the whistle.
It seemed almost certain that Sreejesh would make a save from Phil Roper after Lalit Kumar Upadhyay made it 3-2. With the goal scored by Raj Kumar Pal, the dream of GB was finally ended, and Morton fell to the ground.