Indian hockey team captain Amit Rohidas, wants his team to be more clinical in their games in terms of finishing despite of being happy with the team’s successive wins against powerhouse Germany in the FIH Pro League double-header recently.
After collecting all six points in their home leg double header, India now have a 10 point lead in the FIH Pro Hockey League table over second placed Germany. The men in blue have won 27 points from their 12 matches so far.
India came through as 3-0 and 3-1 winners against Germany last week to finish the home leg on a high note.
Reflecting on his team’s performance, Rohidas said, “The second game was tough against Germany. They played really well. I feel we lacked a bit in finishing. I think this is the area we need to improve upon when we play next. But, overall both the wins were really good for the team.”
Indian hockey team chief coach Graham Reid also expressed his views on his team’s win and said, “Firstly, full marks to Germany, they came out and worked in the second game, you know, just unlucky couple of times. But, I am very proud of the way how our players played in both the matches.
“I said to the boys that from these two games, we will gain a lot from a learning perspective. We set ourselves a target of getting six points, and it’s always good to get six points from back-to-back matches. But also we were looking at the last two matches against Germany as if we were playing Semi-Final and the Gold Medal game. So, we tried putting some value to the game because one of the things that we miss in Pro League sometimes is the opportunity to play a Quarter or a Semi or a Final.”
With the matches to be played against some challenging teams like Belgium and Netherlands, Reid said, “The number of points we have is because of the number of games we’ve played, so yeah, we are on the top at the moment, but we have four games left against Belgium and Netherlands, and they are the ones that will determine, where we stand. The guys get a break now; I get a bit of a break for two weeks and then back into it really hard.”
“We’ve still four matches to go against very strong teams like Belgium and Netherlands, We’ve to carry this momentum throughout the season and play with the same intensity to finish on top,” Rohidas further added.
(Inputs from IANS)