The comprehensive triumph at the Asian Champions Trophy already in the past, the Indian women’s hockey team will be hoping to build on its success and get the coveted ticket to Paris Olympics when it starts its campaign in the Olympic Qualifiers against USA here on Saturday.
It will be a repeat of India’s route to the Olympics last time around although the format is different this time. India outplayed USA, with coach Janneke Schopman then in the rival dugout, in a two-game thriller in 2019 by a solitary goal to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. While only four from that USA team have travelled this time, India too has had an overhaul with several seniors missing.
Schopman is aware of the challenge. “Every team is here only to qualify and we know rankings don’t matter any more. We need to be ready against every team. Knowing the USA’s mentality, we know they will fight hard and compete... they have speed and strength and some skilful players too. We need to defend well and score off the chances we get to get full points,” she admitted.
