Bengaluru, April 29: Indian women’s hockey team head coach Janneke Schopman hopes FIH Pro League matches against some of the world’s best teams have given her team the ideal platform “to raise the bar” ahead of the Cup. of the World that begins in Terrassa (Spain) and Amstelveen (The Netherlands). ) 1st of July.
As the countdown to the fortnight Women’s World Cup begins, there is much anticipation and hope to see the Indian women’s team soar high in the quadrennial tournament, especially after their exploits at the Tokyo Olympics where they finished in a historic fourth place.
“Playing against the best teams in these (Pro League) home games, we focus mainly on ourselves. But more than the result of the games, I am satisfied with how the team has played and I think we are going in the right direction. correct”. Janneke said on Friday.
The Indian women’s team, led by goalkeeping stalwart Savita, have finished home games top of the table in their first Pro League campaign.
Speaking about the team’s preparations in the coming weeks ahead of the remaining Pro League matches in Europe and the World Cup, Janneke said: “For the next five or six weeks we will be in Bangalore, in our own environment and training to a common goal of doing well in the Pro League and the World Cup.
“Our focus will be on developing our physical strength. We will work to maximize our speed in the game. We also want to limit the risk of injury as we will be playing back-to-back Pro League and World Cup matches.” Speaking about their opponents in Group B, in which India is grouped with England, China and New Zealand, Janneke said: “We have played England several times and we are familiar with their game and the team has played China quite a bit too, but due to the pandemic we have not seen New Zealand play in the last two years and from what I have read of them there are some withdrawals in their team and some players are injured but that said ours is a pool where anyone can beat anyone in a good day and we just need to make sure we start off right.