Indian women’s hockey team coach Sjoerd Marijne has asked his team not to get disheartened by the results in Germany last week as he feels the team’s fortunes can change at the Tokyo Olympics.
“We can win a medal in Tokyo and that’s why I keep looking at the performances. We were able to keep possession of the ball longer, we intercepted some good balls. The things we need to improve are finishing and defending in the circle. Against teams like these, you need to create your chances and if you don’t, they will do for sure and that’s what happened on this tour. I am happy we were able to create some chances and now we need to work on finishing our opportunities,” said Marijne through a Hockey India press release.
The coach, who has spent good time with Rani Rampal and company in the last few years, feels the team is getting closer to playing at the same level as the top teams in the world. India, World No. 9, Indian fought well against World No. 3 Germany, but went down 0-5, 0-1, 0-2 and 1-2 in the four matches of the tour. It was held from February 27 to March 4.
The team returns to SAI Centre, Bengaluru, which has been their home base for a long time now.
Earlier in 2021, the Indian women’s hockey team returned to action against Argentina where they were praised for their resilience on the tour. Overall, Marijne was happy how his side competed against Germany. “We have played against two different styles of teams which are among the top three in the world. The tours helped us to understand their tactics and also to see what the benchmark needs to be to beat these teams. Although the results were not in our favour, we are getting closer to them,” he said.
The coach said: “‘Germany are a very well-organised team with a very good structure and it’s not easy to create chances against them. We were able to create enough possibilities to score in every match, but we didn’t finish well. This is something we need to work on in the next following months. We did test them in parts and have some homework to do,” said Marijne.