“The performance was really insufficient today”.
“If they continue to commit such errors in the rest of the tournament then it’s a serious concern. But still what I saw today I don’t want to see it anymore”, the captain said.
Argentina is a team who likes to defend and rely on fast counter attacks.
But all said and done, the HWL Final will be a completely different ball game as top seven teams of the world will be in action.
Two days after India’s High Performance Director Roelant Oltmans said he had “no concerns” about the team, he was yesterday forced to rethink his statement.
The 3-0 result in the end could have been a lot worse for India, and they need to put up a better show against more stiffer competition in Germany.
On being asked about face-off with Argentina in first match of the league starting from November 27, the drag-flicker said “We are confident of giving best performance, but not taking any team lightly”.
“It was a disappointment conceding early goal”.
The first of India’s only four shots at goal came in the 26th minute.
“We went back and back and failed to go forward”. But of course there is always room for improvement and that’s what we will try to find out. It was a disappointing game from our point of view. While most other teams have opted to bring in a few youngsters and rested their seniors, Oltmans said he was not afraid of the fatigue factor before the Olympics as his team was in great shape in terms of fitness.
Going by the world rankings, it is expected to be a close duel as India are just place one rung below Argentina (5). “In 24 hours we play Germany, another tough match”.
“Every one in our side is clear that we want to show a different India tomorrow [against Germany]”.
The Sardar Singh-led side also produced a commendable display in the preparatory three-Test series against world champions Australia here which they lost on deciding penalty shoot out.
“We didn’t execute our plans”. The energy level in the team was down.
