Indian Women's hockey team coach Sjoerd Marijne: We have to be realistic with our expectations
The Dutch coach will be happy if the team reaches the quarterfinals in Tokyo
The Indian women's hockey team will be participating in their second consecutive Olympics in Tokyo from July 23. They had a disappointing outing in Rio 2016 but in the past few years the team has shown encouraging results.
However, India find themselves in a tough group that consists of Germany, Great Britain, Netherlands, Ireland, and South Africa. Out of the six teams, four will progress to the knockouts and reach the quarterfinals.
But apart from South Africa, all other teams are ranked above India which is certainly a cause of concern for coach Sjoerd Marijne.
"Rankings always matter. It is the points that they have accrued after winning games. But we will be going match by match. Going against the best is a big challenge. But we will show what we can do. The pressure is against those teams as they have to snatch the win from us.
"However, I find expectations in India are very high. Only three countries are lower-ranked than India, they are China, Japan, and South Africa. But we have to be realistic. Don't make expectations higher than the reality. First, we have to get to the quarterfinals and then take it on from there. We have been training well and doing mental sessions.
"We can't compare practice matches and an Olympic game. We have worked really hard and now we have to see if that was enough. We are controlling what we can control, i.e. our training sessions," the coach stated during a chat facilitated by the Hockey Federation of India.
The experienced coach believes that making it into the last eight would be a success and hopes that the team will be able to put up an improved show than what was witnessed in Rio 2016.
"It would be a success. But what is more important is the performance. This team must play to their potential. That is my job. If we play to our potential then we can reach the quarterfinals. If we reach there, I am happy to play every country from the other pool. We will make a good chance against them. We can keep going. I hope you will find a better India than the previous Olympics.
"The focus has been really good. A few years ago the focus was to keep the score low. But now it is about getting results. Against Argentina, we made more inroads in their circle. I showed them the reality. We will not go there to participate but to win something."
The former Netherlands coach kept a close watch on his rivals who participated in the Women's EuroHockey Nations Championship earlier this month and has chalked out a blueprint to stop them.
"We saw their matches. I do not think they will change much before the Olympics and we will see what we can do about that. I don't want to reveal much but we have our own skills. We are not the Netherlands or Australia and we don't need to be them. We can learn from them. But the skills we have is our own power. I won't be disappointed by the girls (but) can be disappointed for them, if they don't get to the quarters. They have given their everything in this Olympic cycle."
Skipper Rani Rampal along with vice-captains Deep Grace and Savita Punia accompanied their coach and the trio sounded confident about their success in Tokyo.
"We will perform well. Every player has some unique qualities. We have an experienced goalkeeper and another experienced defender in Deep Grace. We have a balanced team of youth and experience," stated Rampal.
"There will always be pressure. But we know how to handle it. It is just like taking an exam. The coach has been training with us how to keep ourselves calm in crunch situations and that has been of great help," she added.
Goalkeeper and senior player Savita Punia feels that the experience in Rio will help them in the upcoming Olympics. Moreover, in 2021 they have locked horns against quality sides like Argentina and Germany which has further helped them to assess their strengths and weaknesses.
"We qualified but we did not have experience. There is a huge difference between a friendly and an Olympic game. We share our experiences with the juniors. They get motivated by that. We don't need to overthink but just focus on the present. When we played against Argentina and other top teams, our confidence is boosted and we learn a lot," she explained.