The Indian Men’s Hockey team smashed New Zealand 7-4 in their last game whereas they defeated Spain 3-1 in the shootout after a 2-2 draw in regulation time. However India are not getting carried away with the results as Harmanpreet Singh who has led this team for these matches have highlighted how India needs to improve in many areas ahead of the upcoming World Cup in January next year.
The Indian defender highlights how his teammates should avoid getting too many cards as it puts a lot of pressure on the other players whenever the team is a man or two down. He highlights how everyone needs to run twice as much as they were doing when a player is carded out. “The team’s efforts have been quite good in these matches but we can avoid getting cards. Because even if we lose one player on the field, then everyone has to run twice as much,” he pointed out.
He also highlights how they train hard and play a man down in simulations during training and hence they are able to defend well even during these situations. But they should avoid getting cards as it will only get more difficult against stronger opposition.\
Harmanpreet shares how the team is learning from the errors they are making and keeping enough composure to come out of the errors and bounce back. He feels it helps us in developing a confidence in each other and also aids in working as a team.
“It is good that we are making errors in these matches from which we can learn from and improve as we move on towards the World Cup. We are still able to settle down despite the errors and not lose our composure. It definitely helps us in building our confidence in each other, and improving the team,” he added.
India has struggled against Spain in both the games as they somehow found a way to win the second game that too in the shootout. So with them being in India’s Pool for the World Cup, makes things tricky for the Men in Blue. However Harmanpreet feels that playing against an opponent with whom they will play at the World Cup surely has helped the team. “When you look at the match, it was a high-intensity contest. Both teams were fighting till the end. Spain is in our World Cup pool match so playing against them will help us going into the tournament,” he explained.
He also shared how both teams were busy reading and analyzing each other. While they cannot do much about Spain’s strengths they can surely improve on their weaknesses and that is what the team under Graham Reid intends to do.
“They are also reading us and we are also getting a chance to analyze them before the tournament and to keep a stock of their strengths. We will work on our shortcomings and improve upon making clean baseline tackles,” Harmanpreet signs off.
