Harendra Singh, India’s junior hockey team coach expressed his contentment at the team’s performance in the Junior World Cup opener against Canada. He was very “happy” as it was encouraging to witness the team playing well in all aspects of the game.
India started their campaign on a positive note as they brushed past Canada 4-0 in the opening Pool C fixture.
According to the Indian Express, Harendra said at the post-match press conference, “We are happy with our performance in the first match. All compliments to the boys for holding on to their nerves. They played as per plan. We know if we keep going like this, we will achieve our goal.”
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He credited the team for the dominating performance and the massive win.
“I will give full credit to the team. Every team comes here to win but look at the margin, possession of ball, circle penetrations, shots on goal, penalty corners we were by far the superior side. We also did not concede a single penalty corner that shows us that we were superior structure wise,” he said.
He praised the young players and said that in future they could be the stars of Indian hockey. He also stressed on the importance of achieving three points in the opening match of the World Cup.
However, the coach was reluctant of letting in any complacency in the team. He was adamant that there was always room for improvement.
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Roelant Oltman, the coach of the senior national team is present with the junior squad as a part of the coaching team. He reflected Harendra’s views and opined that the first game of every tournament was always difficult. He said that although the boys took a little time to get into the rhythm, once Mandeep scored the opening goal there was no stopping the Indians.
The Dutchman lauded the junior players’ efforts keeping in mind that this was their first match at such a high level with the huge burden of expectations.
He said, “We focus on the job we have to do we don’t focus on things that is not in our hands. If it happens like that then we have to resort to plan B, that is always there in our minds. We started in time and during the game, there were no problems or concerns.”
