Bhubaneswar, Nov 30: Attacking and scoring lots of goals have been their winning strategy for long, but the Netherlands men’s hockey team would rely on their defence to make a mark here during the Champions Trophy hockey tournament starting December 6.
“Dutch Hockey is always about attacking and scoring lot of goals – something we as a team are good at. This time we are focussing on our defence strategy because I believe we need to be very tight in that department,” said the Netherlands coach Max Caldas while talking to reporters Sunday.
Although they are in a tough group along with India, Argentina and Germany, Caldas expressed confidence of doing well as said they his team will give a tough fight to all opponents.
The Netherlands, who have bagged gold medal eight times in past, have been in a tremendous form this year, after their disastrous show last year. They won the Hockey World League this year by thrashing New Zealand 3-2 and reached to the final of the Hockey World Cup where they received a 6-1 thrashing by Australia. Incidentally, the Australians also defeated them in the final of the last edition of the Champions Trophy in 2012 at New Delhi.
The Dutch, however, are now determined to emerge champions here. “We try to win in every tournament that we play. In the Men’s Champions Trophy 2014 there are top class teams of the world playing and we are looking forward to competing with them,” the Netherlands captain Rober Horst said.
Talking about the challenge from other teams in their Pool, Horst, a veteran of 222 matches, said, “Initially our focus is on the pool matches, where we play Argentina, India and Germany, as all of them are strong contenders. We are looking forward to our game against India. Matches against Argentina and Germany are also going to be tough games.”
The Netherlands practiced hard at Pitch 1 of the Kalinga Stadium Sunday under the guidance of coach Caldas. They will face Argentina in their first match of the tournament Sunday.
