FIH Series Finals | This is a test for us to see if we can deliver in serious tournaments, says Siegfried Aikman
Chief coach of the Japan men’s hockey team Siegfried Aikman has stated that the FIH Series Finals is a test for them to assess their performance in major events. Ahead of the semi-final battle against hosts India, Aikman mentioned that India has done well in the tournament to win matches easily.
After winning the cross-over match against Poland, Japan have now set-up the semi-final clash against top-ranked team India on Friday. India had made a direct entry by topping Group A quite convincingly with Poland, Russia and Uzbekistan being the other three teams in the group. On the other hand, Japan had to play the cross-over match as they failed to top their group.
The Asian champion coach Siegfried Aikman is of the opinion that the Indian team has been doing well in the tournament as Manpreet Singh and co. managed to register easy wins in the group stage of the competition here in Bhubaneswar.
“India did very well and won all their matches easily and the teams they beat did well in the other matches. India created a lot of pressure and goal scoring opportunities. They also scored many goals. Wish we did the same,” Aikman told SportsCafe.
“This is a test for us to see if we can deliver in serious tournaments. After the tournament, we will know. The pressure is part of high performance.”
Japan has been playing continuously since the start of the game and their coach reckoned that the players lacked some rest. Aikman would have loved to top the table so that he could have got a few days of rest before the semi-finals by qualifying there directly.
“It’s a disadvantage in terms of rest but at the recent World Cup and the series finals in Malaysia statistics showed differently. Again time will tell. I would have loved to have topped the pool but we didn’t,” Japan’s chief coach explained.
© “The circumstances are for all of us more or less is the same. The only team who had a great advantage is India because they always played at prime time. We have adapted as well as possible but it’s still very hot. We are very continuous to hydrate the players well do many recovery practices without the ball and stick.”
Japan are the Asian Games gold medallists and the world hockey has seen a good rise of the “Land of the rising sun”. The world no. 18 side and the third best team as per rankings in the tournament will be aiming at a good performance against the Graham Reid’s boys on the penultimate day of the competition. India will want to win and qualify for the finals which will give them a ticket for the FIH Olympics Qualifiers while Japan will have no pressure of qualifications for the Olympics which will be played at their home next year.
“We want to challenge the best team in Asia and that is India. It doesn’t create extra pressure if you want to win. You have to beat everyone including India. We prepared well but so did India too. They play aggressive on the edge and try to play together as a team. Create lots of pressure when they lose the ball,” he stated.
Asked about any particular Indian player that Japan is targeting, Aikman replied, “No not at all. We are focused on our own performance and team.”
The Japan coach had some words of praise for the crowd at the Kalinga Stadium as well. The Japanese hockey team was here before in the year 2015 as well when they lost a four-match test series against the Indians.
“We are proud to play at their stadium and will enjoy their support although we know and understand that their heart is with the home team,” Aikman quipped. “Secondly we wish them lots of strength in these difficult days in which they try to recover from the devastating Cyclone.”
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