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Bengaluru, May 31
With less than 10 days to go for their opening match in the FIH Champions Trophy in London, Indian men’s hockey team coach Roelant Oltmans said he was eyeing a top-three finish in the high-profile tournament.
Oltmans said if things went according to plans, the team would stand a good chance of winning a medal in the Champions Trophy.
“Everybody knows we are good in the knockout stage. But Champions Trophy this year will be slightly different and we need to finish in the top-two to play the final and be in the top-four to play for the bronze,” Oltmans said.
“It will be interesting to see how our players face the challenge. Our realistic expectation is to finish in the top-three,” he said.
India will face reigning Olympics champions Germany in the opening match on June 10 and Oltmans stressed on the need to address issues in the team’s defence structure.
“It (defence) is the key to a team’s success in a tournament. There are times when you can’t score too many goals but you can certainly win by not allowing the opponents to score,” he said.
“The Germans are known for their defence while the Australia’s defence is slightly unconventional compared to others. Argentina, too, depend heavily on their defence. It helped them win the bronze at the World Cup.
“In our structure, the entire team needs to work on defence. Some of our attackers are good in defence, too, and that is our strong point,” the Dutchman added.
Soon after the Champions Trophy, the Indian team will travel to Spain for a Test series as part of their preparations for the Rio Olympics, the squad for which will be picked in July. “There will be a little bit of pressure. Only 16 out of 29 members in the camp will get to play at the Olympics and that is quite a sizeable number to drop,” he said. “They will have to challenge other players in the team, which is why every match, every performance is important,” he said. — PTI
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