Press Trust of India
Raipur, Dec 4: Inconsistency has been India’s bane for a long time and the biggest task for Sardar Singh and Co. would be to come up with a steady performance when they take on a dangerous Belgium in the semifinal of the Hockey World League (HWL) Final, here Saturday. The last time the two sides had met was at the HWL semifinals which the Belgians won 4-0.
India lost two of their group matches and drew the third to progress to the quarterfinals as the last team in their pool. But in the quarterfinals, they pulled off a great upset defeating higher-ranked Great Britain 1-2.
The up and down showing is however, worrying India’s chief coach Roelant Oltmans and the Dutchman was candid enough to say that he can’t guarantee a consistent performance from his wards in the next match.
“If you ask me whether we will be able to give a performance like this (against Great Britain) again, then frankly speaking I am not sure about it. But of course we will work towards that,” Oltmans said here about India’s inconsistent performance. “However in spite of that if we play at the same level that we did in the second and third quarters against Great Britain, it will definitely be good for our side. But we will have a ‘safe approach’. The aim will be not to concede early goals.”
Barring a few glitches, the Indians were near perfect against Great Britain. The hosts sparkled in all departments of the game to produce their best performance of the tournament so far. The forward line also regained form and created quite a few opportunities.
But what has been inspiring for India in this tournament is the performance of its midfield led by Sardar. However, Sardar was the first to point out that he alone wouldn’t be able to deliver results. “We have to play as a team. Sadly we have not been doing that consistently,” the skipper lamented.