‘Need mental conditioning’: Hockey coach Graham Reid after India’s elimination from World Cup

“We need to do something different perhaps. Following this, we will work on how we can get a mental coach involved. I think that is an important part of the future of the team,” a distraught Reid said at the post-match conference.

He shared his experience of working with different teams around the world and even said that the mental aspect of the game serves as the silver bullet.

“As far as the drills or training are concerned, we do what all other teams do. I have been in this game for a long time and I know what other teams are doing. If there is anything necessary, a silver bullet out there, I do think that (is) mentally,” the coach added.

After the five shots of a penalty shootout, the match remained tied at 3-3. In the first round of sudden death, skipper Harmanpreet Singh had a good chance at winning the game after New Zealand’s Nic Woods failed in his attempt, but Singh chose to take a direct hit from a distance, only to waste the golden chance.

“It was a good opportunity and I wanted to score and seal the match. But it did not happen,” Harmanpreet Singh said when questioned about his shot selection.

For the next two rounds, each team scored one each goal while missed one each. Finally, Shamsher missed the shot while Sam Lane converted and took his team to a 5-4 victory.

“Tonight, we lacked consistency. In the last quarter, for example, we let ourselves down. We threw the ball away, and kept doing stuff like that, Things like that made it very difficult for ourselves. Every team has at some stage had certain issues like converting circle penetration. We need to go back to the drawing board a little bit later,” coach Graham Reid said.

“It is very hard to answer questions after such a loss. It is (lack of) skill execution at the end of the day, We need to work on that,” he added.

(With inputs from PTI)