5 takeaways for Indian hockey team from their final preparatory tournament at Valencia

#4 Avoid complacency against teams ranked lower

India have fared poorly against lower ranked sides as well

Coming into the tournament, hockey houses were ecstatic at the Indian team’s breaking into the Top Five spots of the FIH rankings following their triumphant display at the Champions Trophy 2016. It also implied that the Men in Blue were seeded second, behind only the favourites Germany who are still holders of back-to-back Olympic hockey golds. Argentina in 7th and New Zealand in 8th were the other two sides from the Top Ten, leaving hosts Spain and Ireland ranked 11th and 12th respectively by the FIH as massive underdogs when they locked horns in Valencia.

The outcomes, however, didn’t suit the textbooks as the Indian unit ended up underperforming heavily. A 4-0 thrashing by Germany, a 1-0 defeat to New Zealand, a hard-earned 3-3 against Argentina, 1-1 with Spain and a narrow 2-1 over minnows Ireland left us languishing in the lower half of the final standings with a meagre five points from as many matches.