London: Jolted by a loss to the Netherlands, India would look to regroup quickly when they take on Malaysia in the quarterfinals of the Hockey World League Semifinal, here Thursday.
After registering three convincing wins against Scotland, Canada and Pakistan, India wasted chances galore to slump to a 1-3 defeat against the Netherlands, their first in the tournament.
The Indians only have themselves to blame for the defeat against the Dutch as besides conceding soft goals, they wasted numerous scoring chances.
And come Thursday, Roelant Oltmans’ men cannot afford to repeat the same mistakes against Malaysia, who are capable of springing surprises on their day.
“This was our toughest match in the group and we had our chances, too. The good thing is that we came back after being 0-3 down but we didn’t do enough and got punished,” coach Oltmans had said after the defeat against Netherlands.
Going by form and ranking, World No. 6 India start overwhelming favourites against the 14th-placed Malaysians.
Oltmans however, warned his team to guard against complacency when they take on Malaysia. The last time the two sides had met, Malaysia had won 1-0 in the Azlan Shah Cup. That would certainly be fresh in the minds of the Indians.
“We need to play with caution and give no room for mistakes because even a little bit of complacency in the knockout stage will put us out of the tournament,” pointed out Oltmans. “Malaysia are a good side and no opponent can be taken lightly.”
Oltmans in spite of being pleased with the performance of the strikers, stated that there is still room for improvement.
“This has been a good aspect for us with the team scoring some fantastic field goals and I am pleased with how the forwards have done so far. However, we must get better and better with each match and still there are some areas of concern like consistency inside the opponent’s ‘D’.
