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After qualifying for Olympics, India target Pro League success for Tokyo buildup
India is set to compete in the nine-team FIH Pro League tournament in which they will be competing against some of the best teams in the world, including current Pro League Champions Australia, World Champions Belgium and Olympics Champions Argentina.
After a thumping 7-1 win over Russia in the 2nd Olympic qualifier on Saturday at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, India men’s hockey team booked a spot the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with an aggregate total of 11-3 after the two qualifying matches. With nine months to go for the Olympics, India coach Graham Reid was quick to recognise the areas where the side needs to improve in the buildup to the big event.
Speaking to reporters after the match, Reid said: “For me, we need to get better at finishing, in goal shooting and goal scoring. We are creating more opportunities, which is great. Now we need to start getting a little bit more return. We also need to be working on our deep defence. We need to get tighter. We are giving too many opportunities to the opposition.”
India is set to compete in the nine-team FIH Pro League tournament in which they will be competing against some of the best teams in the world, including current Pro League Champions Australia, World Champions Belgium and Olympics Champions Argentina. With the tournament set to begin from January, Reid sees it as an opportunity to build up his squad for the Olympics.
“Pro League is a great opportunity. We have a squad of 32-33 players for the tournament. We will get a chance to give opportunities to try a number of players. It will help us to work out our Olympics squad. There are a lot of games to be played during this period. If all of them play all of these games, then they won’t be in the best shape for the Olympics. So we now need to plan it all,” he said.
He further added that the Pro League helps the Indian team in knowing their competition schedule for the next year.
“One of the things the Pro League does is to set our competition schedule for us from here on to the Olympics. We will have a three-week training session in November. This will be a rehash of all that we has happened in the qualifiers. Then we will have a much better idea of what we plan on bringing to the table after Christmas,” he said.
Pro League is set to begin in January and will run till June. “We got nine months to get as good as we can. To get better and better and better. If we focus on the process, the results will look after itself,” Reid signed off.
