Indian women’s hockey team is closer to becoming one of world's top sides, asserts Sjoerd Marijne

03/05/2021

Indian women’s hockey team coach Sjoerd Marijne feels that his side is getting closer to becoming one of the top teams in the world. The eves recently completed a four-match series against Germany, in Dusseldorf, having lost all the matches with scores reading 0-5, 0-1, 0-2, and 1-2.

Even though the results were not favourable, the Indian women’s team learned a lot from their Argentina tour earlier this year – especially after the eves were devoid of International action for a long period owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. They recently completed a four-match series against the Germany national team in Dusseldorf, which was another great opportunity to gain some valuable prep ahead of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

Even though India lost all four matches, they have shown vast improvement as the tour progressed, having started with 0-5 loss, following up with scores of 0-1, 0-2, and 1-2. In spite of the result, the chief coach Sjoerd Marijne feels that his side is getting closer to becoming one of the top teams in the world.

"We have played against two different styles of teams and who are among the top three teams in the world. The tours helped us to understand their tactics and also to see what the benchmark needs to be to beat these teams," said Sjoerd Marijne, as per a Hockey India release.

"Although the results were not in our favour, we are getting closer to them. Germany is a very well-organised team with a very good structure and it's not easy to create chances against them. We were able to create enough possibilities to score in every match, but we didn't finish well. This is something we need to work on in the next following months. We did test them in parts and have some homework to do," added Marijne.

The contingent will now be heading to Bengaluru for a month-long national camp at the SAI centre.