Harpal Singh Bedi
Indian hockey is at cross road. After 41 -years, India gets a chance to make it to the four of the Olympics men hockey as they take on Great Britain the quarter finals in Tokyo on Sunday.
Great Britain finished third-,two wins, two draws and a loss,-in their Pool B league have one Olympic title to their credit which they won in 1988 at Seoul.
However, coach Graham Reid, exuded confidence in Manpreet led team’s ability to get the better of their opponent on Sunday.
“To be honest, facing any of the four European teams who have come directly from the Euro Championships was always going to be a difficult Quarter Final game, but I think it really matters on which one you get. ” he said.
But probably Great Britain are the ones we are comfortable with and very confident with. I think if we play the way we know that we can, then definitely victory is possible.” Reid opined.
The Indian coach further opined that he was satisfied with the way his team has performed. “I think we are reasonably happy with how things have gone. Friday’s game against Japan was really about trying to increase the tempo so that we can be hitting our straps during the Quarter Finals. Objective was really to be playing at that level.
I think Japan played very well, I thought we played a higher, faster tempo. That’s what we are going to need to have to play against Great Britain,” said the 56-year-old Australian.
Barring the disappointment against Australia (1-7) in their second game in the Pool A matches, India did well to finish second in their pool with substantial wins against New Zealand (3-2), Spain (3-0), Argentina (3-1) and Japan (5-3).
Reid believes, India will need to carry forward the momentum from these wins into the Quarter Finals. "When you look at our performances in the last four-five games, apart from the Australian one which was really disappointing result, the rest have been about building performance levels."In their most recent tour of Europe in March this year, India had faced off with Great Britain in two games where they drew 1-1 in the first game and beat Great Britain 3-2 in the second.
Skipper Manpreet Singh said “It was good to play Great Britain in Europe which helped us gain better understanding of how this team has been playing in recent times.
“But they can be a dark horse at the Olympics, and we really need to play our A Game against them.”
“It was pleasing to score three field goals in the match against Japan. We were creating opportunities in the previous matches, but we were not converting, so it was nice to do that on Friday.
“I think we have been doing well with the PCs. Again, I want to reiterate that we need to do well in all departments to get the better of Great Britain. We have been building our momentum and obviously tomorrow night we need to continue that.” he added