Need to improve one-on-one tackling: Reid

Bhubaneswar, January 20

Indian men’s hockey team chief coach Graham Reid feels his wards need to improve their “one-on-one” tackling and 3D skills ahead of their FIH Pro League ties against Belgium and Australia.

The Indian team made a dream debut at the FIH Pro League, beating world No. 3 Netherlands 5-2 in the first tie of the double-header. The hosts then came from two goals down to beat the Dutch 3-1 in the penalty shootout after the second game ended 3-3 in regulation time. “The good thing was we struggled to win this (second) match, and sometimes, it’s good to struggle for a win because you learn a lot. Also it is a proof that if we apply ourselves and use some aggressiveness, we can bounce back,” Reid said. “I still feel our one-on-one tackling can improve and we have also been working on three dimensional skills to beat players in short space. This can help create penalty corners and when you have a world-class dragflick battery, we can definitely make use of this,” he added.

Dragflicker Rupinder Pal Singh, who scored a goal yesterday, said the team has matured a lot in the last two years. “There is definitely a change in attitude on how we approach a game even when we are down,” he said. — PTI