The International Hockey Federation’s (FIH) Coach of the Year has a blueprint for this: develop a ‘collective defensive mindset’ – primarily all the time having somebody on the hotline (the road between the ball service and the aim). is, mark attackers ‘actually, actually shut’ and deal easily; Be extra ‘efficient and polished’ within the scoring zone by minimizing huge swings and smash hits; Add a brand new, aggressive dimension to an already below strain recreation; And, as a substitute of working with the ball, swoop it round patiently till a niche seems within the opposition’s protection.
Achieving all this in a really quick period of time looks as if an excessive amount of. The new hockey season begins in three weeks – on 28 October – with the FIH Pro League, a match a precursor to the World Cup that is a bit more than three months away. But Reid is certain that that is the one means out for the bronze medalists of the Tokyo Olympics. “If we play well and do the things we are good at, we are a tough team,” says the India head coach.
These, he says, are classes discovered from the not too long ago held Commonwealth Games. More particularly, after India was crushed by Australia. Twice in 12 months, the Kookaburras scored seven targets in entrance of hapless India – first on the Tokyo Olympics (7-1) after which on the Birmingham CWG (7-0).
The defeat in Tokyo didn’t hassle Reid a lot, neither earlier than nor now. “At the Olympics, we created a lot of chances. I didn’t think there was an intimidation factor,” he says. In Birmingham, Reid felt it was the case. “Part nerves, half intimidating, half undecided (what To do).”
It is a mysterious sample as India have proven the power to go toe-to-toe in opposition to virtually each different crew on the earth. Since 2010, India has surrendered to Australia in 4 main finals, two every within the Champions Trophy and the Commonwealth Games. The 2022 CWG as soon as once more posed an uncomfortable query for gamers: what was it about Australians that made them tremble on the sight?
Reid, a former Australia worldwide, offers an instance from his taking part in days within the early Nineteen Nineties when Germany was the gold normal, profitable 1992 Barcelona Olympic gold, 1998 World Cup bronze and 4 Champions Trophies. “We raised Germany up a notch, prepared too much for them, made them more than what they really deserved. You would never want to do that.”
In the case of India, the issues are multifaceted. Immediately after the Commonwealth Games, when the nationwide camp was held in Bengaluru, the gamers and the teaching workers performed a postmortem of the Australia match. It wasn’t as exhaustive as Reid would have favored, however nonetheless sufficient to know what was the reason for the crew sick.
will probably be australian
Bhubaneswar: Australian gamers have fun after a aim throughout their match in opposition to Ireland (inexperienced) for the Men’s Hockey World Cup 2018 in Bhubaneshwar, Friday, November 30, 2018. (PTI photograph/Ashok Bhowmik)
It’s a mix of three issues, says Reid. First, he admits, that ‘Australia remains to be a psychological block for some individuals.’ “We need to get over this.”
The second is the absence of the Hockey India League (HIL). “The nice thing about HIL was that a lot of people played with Australian players on their teams, so they had a better idea of how they played,” Reid says. That confidence translated to a pitch the place India and Australia have been engaged in some shut encounters in current occasions. With the departure of HIL, the aura of invincibility across the Australian gamers has returned from India’s perspective. And third, Reid factors out, matches in opposition to Australia are missing. After being hit by the pandemic, Australia minimize all contact with the surface world, pulled out of the Pro League and was barely taking part in a match forward of the Tokyo Olympics.
“We trained with the Germans, played a lot of games against Argentina, when it all came down to it, they felt confident and comfortable,” says Reid.
Terrible recollections of the earlier loss in opposition to Australia meant that when the time got here, the gamers froze. “We didn’t put pressure on them, which was our trademark in Europe during the Pro League. We were going to Belgium, to Holland…”
Reid noticed the Indian gamers come inside three meters of the Australian gamers after which catch up – ‘half nerves, half intimidating, half undecided’, he repeats. “When you don’t put pressure on a team like Australia, they start dictating. They raise their heads, make passes and make it difficult for our defenders. The longer someone has the ball, the better for the defenders. It would be equally difficult to defend him.”
In the January 2023 World Cup, if India and Australia prime their respective swimming pools and win their quarterfinals, they’ll meet one another within the semi-finals. Reid just isn’t wanting too far forward however it’s amongst his priorities to be sure that the subsequent time India meet Australia, the gamers will not be within the least fearful.
So he’ll take the crew to Adelaide subsequent month. It will probably be Reid’s first go to to his house nation in additional than three years and it is going to be a busy homecoming for the 58-year-old. India and Australia will play 5 matches in opposition to one another other than a couple of coaching periods with an area crew.
“The idea is to make ourselves insensitive to them, to make ourselves understand that when we play well we can beat them,” says Reid. “We need to make sure our game is bulletproof.”
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
