The Indian women’s hockey team is heading towards a critical juncture, defined by two major tournaments positioned agonisingly close together.
Key Factors
“But with the Asian Games, you can qualify for the Olympics and that is our big goal — being a medallist at the 2028 Olympics. India have been grouped with Paris Olympics silver medallists China, Rio Olympics champions England and world No.18 South Africa. Just to qualify for that will be a tough task for the world No.9 outfit. “Against the higher ranked teams, you’ll not get 10 chances, you’ll get maybe three, and you have to make at least 1-2 of them (count). You’ll get maybe three PCs, you have to make 1-2 of them. Then you’re going to win those matches,” adds Marijne, who guided the team to fourth place at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. The team would be leaving for Germany on July 29 to play two matches before travelling to Netherlands on August 2. It will play four practice matches against Chile, Japan, Netherlands and Australia before the World Cup starts on August 15 with India’s opening game against China. And then we have a similar number of games in the Asian Games, so it’s 100% all-in, there are no easy games,” Fulton told The Hindu on Friday.
India won the World Cup Qualifiers in Hyderabad in March to make the cut for the showpiece event. India then won the Nations Cup in Auckland in June to earn promotion to the elite Pro League. India had lost to England in the World Cup Qualifier final. We played a World Cup qualifier, we achieved our goal and qualified but we lost the final to England.
Because we are ranked eighth, the realistic goal is we’ve been given a 5% chance of winning. Because you need a certain amount of strength to get through seven games if you go all the way in the World Cup, “The big block now is strength and conditioning. Because everyone’s in a good place,” he said, and the guys are super motivated.
That is the dream goal. Can we reach it? We don’t know, but we are hunting for it. And the major step is to qualify. Marijne joined the setup in January following which he helped the Salima Tete-led team achieve two major targets. Before dreaming of the Asian Games podium, India must survive a difficult World Cup pool stage. Only two will progress to the next round robin. Encounters against England and China will serve as the ultimate barometer of progress. To ensure that the gap shrinks, Marijne has overseen a cultural overhaul. Before his arrival, the team was marred by turbulence and internal rifts. The transformation into a cohesive unit required stripping away egos and fostering a collective identity. “You need more unity, focus on the team goal, not your individual goal. “Defensively stay as structured as we are and be disciplined. In the end, in big tournaments, it’s about converting your chances into goals. But the reality of international hockey is that opportunities are fleeting. With the Indian team entering its final stage of preparations for the World Cup, women’s hockey coach Sjoerd Marijne is focussing on fitness, aware it could be the difference in a game of small margins. Two months mater, the team will have a chance to book an Olympic ticket at the Asian Games but Marijne understands the two are very different competitions. It’s been more than half a century that the Indian men’s hockey team has been anywhere near the World Cup podium. As Craig Fulton’s boys enter the final stretch of preparations for yet another shot at the medal, the coach is not only aware of the challenge ahead but also comfortable with the ‘underdog’ tag for his team. “The ideal goal, of course, is to win. It’s perfectly set up for a World Cup. We go into it as underdogs, to be honest, and that’s a good place for us to be. There will also be the Asian Games in two months with an Olympic ticket at stake. However, Fulton insisted the team wasn’t looking that far ahead, not even to the knockout stages of the World Cup yet. “The first goal is to get out of the pool in the top two, preferably in the number one position. We’re looking at all our tactical plans, all our opposition, our offensive, long corner, penalty corner type defence. We’re really trying to do a good job on what we’re going to be coming up against. The Indian women’s hockey team took a big step towards returning to top-tier competition by winning the FIH Nations Cup over the weekend but for coach Sjoerd Marijne, it is only one step on the long road to being a regular at the highest level. At the same time, he is candid that every victory makes a difference to the team’s confidence. You have to learn from things that don’t go well; like not winning that final. I think the team reached a higher level (in Nations Cup) than that final. Marijne and his girls have ticked off two of the boxes for the year — World Cup qualifiers and Nations Cup. Up next will be the World Cup and the all-important Asian Games. “You always want to improve in every area. If I talk about this tournament, it’s mainly converting our chances into goals.
“I rate both tournaments really high,” Marijne tells HT. We did really well with penalty corners (PC), but we can convert more field chances,” he said. “Like I told the girls, it’s important to learn also to win. We create enough opportunities but we don’t make enough field goals, that’s something we need to keep working on,” he said.
And I was happy with that,” Marijne admitted during an interaction with select media on Wednesday.
