After his team registered an impressive victory over Scotland in their opening match of the Hockey World league (HWl) Semi Finals, India skipper Manpreet Singh wants his team to bring more aggression in their play for the upcoming matches.
India bounced back into the game against Scotland in the third quarter after going goalless in the first two quarters. A 'pep-talk' by Chief Coach Roelant Oltmans during the ten-minute break at halftime changed the course of the match for India. It was goals by Ramandeep Singh (31', 34'), Akashdeep Singh (40') and Harmanpreet Singh (42') that scripted India's victory. "We knew we didn't start well. But coach gave us that confidence during the break saying there's still 30 minutes to go and nothing is lost yet. He asked us to bring more energy and aggression into our game. He reminded us about the strategic planning we had made ahead of the match against Scotland and asked us to execute it and not think of the misses we had in the first two quarters," stated Manpreet about the animated dressing room talk.
Manpreet also cautioned his side against complaecency when they take on Canada in their second match of the tournament on Saturday.
"Though the team is ranked below us, we don't want to take them lightly. They can come up with a good game and hence it is important for us to stick to the roles assigned by our coach and execute them as planned," he said.
While India has had a fair record against Canada, having won their league stage matches in 2015 and 2016 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup with a score of 5-3 and 3-1 respectively, India drew a crucial match against them at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
After the match against Canada, Indian team will face the ever-unpredictable Pakistan against whom the team has enjoyed success in the recent past. In 2016, India beat Pakistan 3-2 in both league and final match at the Men's Asian Champions Trophy. India also won the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup match against Pakistan by a convincing 5-1 margin. This will be the first encounter this year between India and Pakistan. Manpreet Singh believes the team will come-up with a good show. "We always look at Pakistan as just another team and we always look at earning those three points from the match to advance in the league stage. They are a good side, but we have had a good start to the tournament. The idea will be to stick to the plans coach draws up before the match against both (Canada and Pakistan) teams, bring in more aggression into our game and aim at finishing on top of the table in the league stage," expressed an optimistic Manpreet.
He further emphasized that the team has no added pressure as they have already qualified to participate at the Odisha Men's Hockey World league Final Bhubaneswar 2017 this December.