A lot was expected from the Indian women`s hockey team at the Asia Cup in Muscat, Oman, recently given their impressive fourth-place finish at the Tokyo Olympics last year. However, all they could manage was a bronze medal and coach Janneke Schopman admitted that it was a disappointing result.
“I hate losing, so I`ll be lying if I say I was not disappointed [at the Asia Cup]. We lost two games [0-2 to Japan and 2-3 to Korea], but in both we created a lot of opportunities. Also, our ultimate goal was to qualify for the World Cup [July 1-17in Spain and Netherlands] and we achieved that so that`s also a positive sign,” Netherlands-born Schopman, who took over the reins from Sjoerd Marijne after the Tokyo Olympics, said during a virtual media interaction on Tuesday.
The Indian women`s team have a very busy calendar. They are currently playing in the FIH Pro League which will be followed by the World Cup. Then, there is the Commonwealth Games (July 28 to August 8 in Birmingham, England) and the Asian Games (September 10-25 in Hangzhou, China). Schopman made it crystal clear that the Asian Games is their most important engagement. “The Asian Games is the most important tournament for us this year as we want to win and qualify directly for the Paris 2024 Olympics. The Asia Cup showed us that Korea, Japan, China and Malaysia play a different style of hockey compared to the rest of the world. Korea like to hold on to the ball and dribble and are very dangerous in their counterattacks and that cost in the game against them. Japan are well structured and have a tight defence,” added Schopman, who went on to spell out her style of coaching. “I believe in changing small things. I like attacking hockey, but at the same time, I also like a strong defence that plays a little bit higher on the field.
Sometimes, when we make mistakes, it`s costly, but I like the way this team are developing. I`ve told the girls that right now we are a team that everyone are watching because of our success in Tokyo, so they have to get used to that.”
