FIH Series Finals | India didn’t start sharp enough against Poland, says Graham Reid
Indian hockey coach Graham Reid is of the opinion that the Indians didn’t have a sharp start against Poland during their 3-1 win over the latter in their second group match of the FIH Series Finals. Reid also stated that the two things that the team is working on is tackling and goal efficiency.
After beating Russia by a margin of 10 goals, India defeated Poland by only a couple of goals on Friday. Considering the difference in the world rankings, India were expected to do a lot better against the Polish opponents. However, they just managed to score three goals and the goalkeepers also failed to maintain a clean sheet against Poland.
India ended the first quarter without scoring a single goal and coach Reid stated after the game that Poland was much better team considering their rankings.
“I think, we start this by saying that Poland was a much better team. Poland is no. 2 in the world in indoor hockey and we saw some of their skills today. We didn’t start sharp enough and that is something we would continue to work on and come up with a solution,” Reid told reporters after the match.
“Our players will also agree that we didn’t have the best game today (Friday), we still created a lot of opportunities. Two things that we have been working on is tackling and goal efficiency.”
Indian defence was again not up to the mark and few lapses here and there resulted in Poland getting open spaces in the Indian D more than it was expected. India had also conceded the first penalty corner of the match which the opposition failed to score in the first quarter. Meanwhile, the coach denied singling out anyone’s fault and said the overall team had an off day on the turf.
“I don’t like singling out a particular thing whether defenders or anyone. All of us were off their game today (Friday). We know that the results that we saw. We missed some tackles, we missed some passes. There are this sort of things when we are switched on and when we are playing well, they are not a part of the game. We will be working on our sharp games in our next match and building up for the finals,” the coach explained.
In the last 10 minutes or so, India had created at least three-four scoring opportunities, but Gursahibjit Singh looked a bit tentative inside the Polish D which denied India a goal during that period. The young Indian forward was involved in most of them and he looked clueless on that position. The former Aussie player defended Gursahibjit saying that Gursahibjit is young now and the management is trying to make the youngsters understand what they should do.
“Gursahibjit is a young player and the whole idea is giving this guys experience, so when it really matters they can step forward. For me as a coach, we try to help these guys to get better and get to understand what they should do. You always need a good mix of younger players and experienced players.”
“I think what happens is the guys get distracted from their tasks. So, we have to find a way that we stay focused on our task and on doing our job,” Reid signed off.
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