The Indian women’s hockey team defeated Italy 5-1 on Tuesday to advance to the semi-finals of the FIH Olympic Qualifiers, but chief coach Janeke Schopman said the scoreline did not reflect the intensity in the middle. I feel that there is.
India finished second behind the US in Pool B and will face Pool A leaders Germany in Thursday’s semi-final.
Click here to follow our WhatsApp channel
The top three teams in the tournament qualify for the Paris Olympics.
“We’ve learned from every game. In the first game we didn’t play very well. In the second game we were really good and we were in control. This game was a little difficult. , it was a little bit of a struggle,” Shopman said. After the match.
“What we learned from this is we really started to fight back and dominate this game.
“Italy are a difficult team to play against. They are very skilled and play hard. We have a lot to learn from them,” added the Dutchman.
Coach Shopman praised Udita Duan, who scored twice in his 100th international match on Tuesday.
“Deepika was not compatible with most PCs, so Udita was a good option.”
“Deepika is good with drag flicks and she was very good with her flicks in training. Once she tried to flick, we mistrapped the ball. There was a lot of pressure on that stroke (penalty stroke). “We were just 1-0 up.” ”
Shopman said at one point he was not impressed with how his team was playing.
This game is difficult to play. I know everyone talks about scoring and ultimately you have to play hockey, but we didn’t play very well in the first two quarters. We played against ourselves in the match. ”
Her coach has no intention of changing Udita’s style of taking penalty corners.
“She (Udita) is good at giving slaps so I have no problem with it. Udita just takes slaps and is very dangerous. She has a good mindset and executes her skills pretty well .I’m happy with it.”
Shopman said the ongoing tournament is extremely stressful for any team.
“You need two finals to qualify. People don’t know this, but this tournament is very stressful because everyone wanted a chance to get into the top four and go to Paris. New Zealand “Italy had a chance today after losing to the United States. They knew they could qualify if they won,” she said.