“Games against Netherlands and Belgium will determine where we stand,” says Indian Men’s Hockey team head coach Graham Reid

The Indian Men’s Hockey team have won both their matches in their last home leg double header against Germany and have consolidated their position at the top of the FIH Hockey Pro League standings. India have now secured 27 points from 12 games and have a 10 point gap between second-placed Germany.

The recent double header saw Amit Rohidas captain the Men in Blue as India bagged 3-0 and 3-1 wins over Germany to pull the curtains on the home leg. Speaking on India’s recent performances, Rohidas said, “The second game was tough against Germany. They played really well. I feel we lacked a bit in finishing. I think this is the area we need to improve upon when we play next. But, overall both the wins were really good for the team.”

Indian Men’s Hockey team head coach Graham Reid shared how proud he was of his players as they showed great tenacity and fight against the Germans. He said, “Firstly, full marks to Germany, they came out and worked in the second game, you know, just unlucky couple of times. But, I am very proud of the way how our players played in both the matches.”

Reid shared how he told the boys that it will be a good learning for them to play against Germany whilst giving them a target of six points from these two matches. “I said to the boys that from these two games, we will gain a lot from a learning perspective. We set ourselves a target of getting six points, and it’s always good to get six points from back-to-back matches. But also we were looking at the last two matches against Germany as if we were playing Semi-Final and the Gold Medal game. So, we tried putting some value to the game because one of the things that we miss in Pro League sometimes is the opportunity to play a Quarter or a Semi or a Final,” the Australian explained.

India will now play two doubleheaders against Belgium and Netherlands up next. Reid feels that the last four matches will determine where the Men in blue stands on the points table. “The number of points we have is because of the number of games we’ve played, so yeah, we are on the top at the moment, but we have four games left against Belgium and Netherlands, and they are the ones that will determine, where we stand. The guys get a break now, I get a bit of a break for two weeks and then back into it really hard,” Reid concluded.

It will be a challenge for the Indian Men’s Hockey team to fight it out against the Netherlands and Belgium away from home as they aim to finish at the summit of the points table.