Women’s Hockey Team’s Chief Coach Janneke Schopman and Vice Captain Vandana Katariya expressed their optimistic thoughts ahead of the FIH Pro league’s India Leg which will commence on 3rd Febraury in Bhubaneshwar. India will face China in their season opener on Saturday.
After the recent failures, the team is look forward to give their best, playing against the high ranked teams like Australia and Netherlands.
FIH Pro League: The team is ready for the challenge, says Vandana Katariya
The Indian Women’s Hockey team failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics as they lost to Japan in FIH Olympic Qualifiers in Ranchi two weeks back. Talking about the same, the head coach Schopman said, “I think as a team we are growing still to be honest. It’s been a tough two weeks, we’ve done a lot of talking, thinking about what happened and why it happened. I think we want to show we are a good team and a capable team to play against good teams as well.”
“We have to look at a perspective in the last 6 months. I wasn’t happy with team’s performance at Asian Games. I was happy at the recent Olympic qualifiers and now we have to look at the individual performances as well where I need players to bring their own performances in every game,” Schopman added.
The head coach also highlighted that with possible changes, this Indian team can be amongst the top 5 teams for a long period.
“I am currently busy making the plans for next one year. I have a personal feeling that Women’s Hockey can have a very bright future, is something which I already discussed with the team and I also do think India can be a top 5 countries in the world consistently, but things have to change and in at all levels.”
Vice Captain Vandana Katariya said, “The team is feeling a bit sad for not qualifying for the Paris Games. But they are ready for this challenge and a good opportunity to play against top sides. All the players trained very hard under the guidance of the Coach and developed a positive mindset to win the games.”
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