India’s forwardline might be facing a lot of flak for its poor show in the ongoing Hockey World league (HWl) Final here, scoring just two goals in three games, but chief coach Roelant Oltmans on Tuesday defended his strikers, saying they have been let down by the final pass.
Indian striking force of Akashdeep Singh, Ramandeep Singh, SV Sunil, Talwinder Singh, Mohd Amir have been a big disappointment in this tournament so far, wasting numerous scoring opportunities. Out of five chances, only Akashdeep hit a goal during the 1-1 draw against Olympic champions Germany.
But Oltmans came in support of his strike force, putting the blame on the final delivery.
“It is disappointing but like I said before, you just can’t blame the forwards. We also need to look at the kind of passes they received. Sometimes it looks like a forward is not picking up the ball, but the pass itself is terrible. Sometimes it’s a bumpy ball, the direction is not good, speed is not good and seems that the forward made the mistake,” Oltmans said here after India finished their pool stage at last position with just one point, courtesy the draw against Germany.
“I have said many a times that the passing style is not good. We need to improve on our passing. And if you see the last three games, the forwards had to receive bouncy balls, and under pressure, it’s not easy. In the end you want more out of your circle penetrations,” he explained.
Although they finished last in Pool B, India still progressed to the quarterfinals because of the format which allows all the eight participating teams a chance to make it to the knock-out phase. India will take on the toppers of Pool A in the quarterfinals, owing to their last place finish in Pool B.
Reiterating that inconsistency has been India’s main problem, Oltmans said it would take time to address the problem.
“It’s not been consistent enough, that’s clear. We have been good in certain faces. Against Germany we played really well. There’s room for improvement,” he said.
“For me the most important thing is we need to be patient and take more time when we execute our plans. Every attack from us has been 100 per cent. The boys are playing the way I want them to play. But too many times we lose possession somewhere on our way. And we lose a lot of energy in winning back the ball. The same energy is needed when we are in the final third.”
Oltmans, who is also the High Performance Director of the Indian hockey team, lauded the performance of his midfield led by talismanic skipper Sardar Singh.
“The midfield has played really well in the past games. But the attack has disappointed, and that is because we lost energy in the defensive third. That’s an area we need to improve. We also have made some technical mistakes. At the end we don’t get enough out of the game,” he said.
Australia beat Canada 6-0
Canadian goalkeeper produced a Man of the Match performance but it was not enough to stop Australia from taking a 6-0 victory in their final Pool A match . The Kookaburras were at their brilliant best in the first quarter, taking a 4-0 lead thanks to goals from Daniel Beale, Jeremy Hayward, Dylan Wotherspoon and Matthew Dawson. It was an electric start from the world champions, but Canada tightened up their defences and a string of excellent saves from Carter kept the Aussies at bay until the dying minutes when Kieran Govers found the target before Beale scored a second to complete the scoring.
great britain draw 3-3 with belgium
India will face Great Britain in the quarterfinals here on Thursday after the British drew 3-3 with Belgium to top Pool A.
In what can be judged as the best match of the tournament, Great Britain and Belgium fought tooth and nail to get the better of the other. But in the end the draw was a just result as there was hardly anything to separate the two sides.
