Indian men may have got off to a rollicking start in the Olympic Qualifiers, but the 15-1 mauling of Singapore does not excite coach Michael Nobbs.By Joshua Nath
The Indian men's hockey team gave its fans at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium a lot to cheer about on Saturday evening by hammering Singapore 15-1, but for team boss Nobbs, it was just another game from which a lot is to be learnt.
“Yes, I am dissatisfied with the result. We will play a lot better as we are not peaking at the right time. We need to build momentum to be at our best towards the final end of the tournament,” Nobbs said on February 18 in a post-match conference.
The former Australian center-half also gave credit to a rookie Singapore team for testing India at certain stages of the contest. “Singapore kept attacking, they kept coming back at us. Although they’re a young team, they never dropped their heads and never stopped running,” he said.
Team Singapore, ranked 41 in the world, was not supposed to trouble the Indians in anyway and as the scoreline suggested, it was a mismatch. However, Nobbs feels a stiffer opposition would not have made much of a difference to the competitive start that India made in the series.
“No, this team was equally competent and we are not downplaying our opponent in the opener. We were prepared for what was coming our way. We did not play to our potential as well as I would have liked. As a team, we are exactly where we wanted to be at this moment,” added the Australian.
Nobbs minced no words in elaborating the flaws in their game which they now need to iron out before they play better opponents. “I think they are usually the things we discuss in our team meetings. Like, we entered their inner circle 56 times but converted only 15. That is not the ideal ratio we want to be in circle penetrations.
Even our drag-flicking was merely average. We hope to do much better next time,” concluded the Australian.
Gurvinder Singh Chandi scored a hat-trick, Shivendra Singh and Danish Mujtaba scored a brace each for India while skipper, Bharat Chettri, could not avoid a clean slate. Chettri admitted to his folly. “We lacked communication at that juncture. And it was my fault as well as I should have been back but I went too ahead and because of that, they were able to score. When you do not get the ball at your end often enough, your body tends to move
slowly and that was visible on my front,” he said with a sheepish smile.
India take on Italy in their second clash of the tournament on Sunday.
