Hockey World Cup 2023: India suffered a sudden-death defeat to New Zealand in the cross-overs, crashing out of the event. Meanwhile, head coach Graham Reid has pondered having a mental head coach on board.
On Sunday, India's chief coach Graham Reid said the team needs a mental conditioning coach going ahead after the hosts lost to New Zealand in the penalty shootout in a crossover match to crash out of the 2023 FIH Men's Hockey World Cup at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneshwar. Reid's comments could indicate that his team could not deal with the mental aspect of the game as the home side once again dominated their crossover match but squandered a two-goal lead twice to end at 3-3 in regulation time.
"We need to do something different, perhaps. Following this, we will work on getting a mental coach involved. I think that is an important part of the team's future. As far as the drills or training are concerned, we do what all other teams do. I have been in this game for a long time and know what other teams are doing. If there is anything necessary, a silver bullet out there, I think that (is) mentally," a distraught Reid said at the post-match conference.
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India and New Zealand were tied 3-3 after five shots in the shootout. Captain Harmanpreet Singh had the chance to seal the match in the first round of sudden death when New Zealand's Nic Woods fluffed his case, but he inexplicably chose to take a direct hit from a distance and wasted the golden chance.
Next, Raj Kumar Pal and Sean Findlay scored as the scores were tied. Both Sukhjeet and Hayden Phillips missed next to keep the scoreline level. Shamsher Singh finally missed while Sam Lane converted to seal a 5-4 shootout win for New Zealand and break the hearts of the 15,000 full-to-the-brim crowd at the Kalinga Stadium.
Asked why he took a shot like that in a crucial moment, Harmanpreet said, "It was a good opportunity, and I wanted to score and seal the match. But, it did not happen." On whether captaincy has put pressure on him and affected his performance, he said, "It is a team game. Everybody has been talking about my [lack of] penalty corner conversions. But I had not gone into a match without wanting to score. I feel no pressure. I have to work harder and the same for the team also."
Reid said the team would need to go back to the drawing board and sort out the mistakes. "Tonight, we lacked consistency. In the last quarter, for example, we let ourselves down. We threw the ball away and kept doing stuff like that. Things like that made it very difficult for us," he remarked.
"Every team has had certain issues like converting circle penetration at some stage. We need to go back to the drawing board a little bit later. It is tough to answer questions after such a loss. It is [lack of] skill execution at the end of the day. We need to work on that," added Reid.
He refused to comment on whether the current team was the best available for the World Cup. "I am not making comments on the players. We still have to play two matches [classification matches for 9th to 16th place]. We made a lot of circle penetration, but we could not convert them. Three or four more (goals) could have been there," Reid continued.
The Australian said the lack of penalty corner conversion was one of many issues against New Zealand. "PC was a factor but not the only one. The problem tonight was that every time we won the ball, we gave it back [to the opponents], which happened many times. That was the telling factor, and you can't do that at this level," reckoned Reid.
Reid, whose tenure is up to the 2024 Olympics, gave no hints of leaving the job as he listed the upcoming matches. "After these two classification matches, we have Pro League matches against Germany and Australia, and then we have a Test series against Australia. But our focus is on the next match," he concluded. India will play Japan on Thursday in the classification match.
(With inputs from PTI)
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