Bhubaneswar: Despite already qualifying as the host nation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, coach of the Japan men’s hockey team, Siegfried Aikman is in no mood to take the FIH Series Finals starting here June 6, lightly. He said that a good performance in this tournament will help them rake up ranking points.
“We are here to win the tournament because it adds a lot to our world ranking points. We have Olympics at home next year and rankings will play an important role in formation of the pools,” Aikman said upon Japan’s arrival at the Biju Patnaik International Airport here Sunday morning.
“We are already in a disadvantage because we didn’t play in the FIH Pro League which would have boosted our points. It’s a shame that we didn’t play but we don’t make rules, we have to go by them,” he added.
The 2018 Asian Games gold medallist Japan, have been studiously building up for this tournament. They have played invitational tournaments as a part of their preparations, in Holland, China and Korea. While they won four games, they lost eight and drew three.
“Our preparations have been good. Yeah it’s true that we had mixed results, but the exposure that we acquired against different teams in three different countries will help us in this tournament,” stated Aikman.
“We played against different styles of hockey which we can expect here and the boys are pretty much raring to go,” the Dutch coach who has his roots in Gujarat, said.
The ‘Blue Samurais’ have been clubbed with USA, Mexico and Uzbekistan in Pool B. On being asked how he rates the group, the 60-year-old replied, “We focus on our strengths. We know what we can do and I think that’s enough. If you want to win, you have to beat every team in the event. We are ambitious and our target is to win all the matches,” asserted the coach.
India are currently ranked fifth while Japan are 18th. They are the two highest-ranked teams in the event. Aikman was asked if an India-Japan final is on the cards.
“Of course we all hope so, but you can’t take it for granted. Looking at the Malaysia Series Finals (referring the final where Canada came from behind to beat Malaysia), it was quite stunning and it can happen here too,” said Aikman who was here during the World Cup last year.
“It shows the how the strength of the game has developed. More and more countries are taking hockey seriously. There are no easy wins, but at the end what matters is the ranking. So I think this is going to be a tough competition,” signed of the Dutchman.
