‘Nerves Got The Better Of Us’: India Coach On Women’s Hockey World Cup Elimination

India women’s hockey team coach Sjoerd Marijne admitted nerves got the better of his side in its goalless draw against Australia, adding that reaching the fifth-sixth place playoff at the World Cup is still a significant achievement. India succumbed to the pressure of a must-win match and were knocked out of semifinal contention after being held to a goalless draw by Australia on Sunday.

“It looked like there were nerves. We didn’t play the game we wanted to play. It was not fluent, there was no rhythm in the passing and receiving and there were a lot of unforced errors,” Marijne told PTI after the draw.

“It’s not that we can’t do it, but I don’t know why we couldn’t do it. We know we can do much better than this. Everyone is very disappointed.” India will now play the fifth-sixth place classification match, a position Marijne believes the team can take pride in reaching after making significant progress in recent months.

“But if you had said five or six months ago that we were going to play the fifth-sixth position match, nobody would believe us. I also told the girls that we really need to learn from this,” he said.

The Dutchman said India’s inability to convert their opportunities proved costly in a game where only a win would have kept their semifinal hopes alive.

“This was our first setback. We didn’t lose and holding Australia to a draw is also a positive, although we needed to win this. In these kinds of matches you have to be there and avail the chances you get.

“You need to score goals to win matches, which didn’t happen against Australia,” he said.

Marijne identified penalty-corner conversion and composure in front of goal as the key areas India need to improve.

“Defensively, we were very well structured and organised. The team was very disciplined and stayed on task. The major takeaway from the tournament is converting PCs and the opportunities we get. We need to be a little more calm in scoring positions around the goalkeeper,” he said.

India’s best performance at the Women’s World Cup remains their fourth-place finish in 1974, when the Ajinder Kaur-led side narrowly missed out on a medal in France.

Marijne said the team’s latest achievement should be viewed in that context.

“I told the girls that we are all disappointed, but we are going to play the fifth-sixth position match, which is also historical. We have reached this position after many decades. We also need to find out why we couldn’t do it today.” The coach also drew parallels with India’s experience after their quarterfinal defeat to Ireland at the 2018 World Cup, saying lessons from difficult matches can prove valuable at major tournaments.

“I remember that we lost the quarterfinal in 2018 against Ireland in London, but we learnt a lot from that match. In Tokyo 2021, we played against them and won. So the learnings will be useful for the future.

“We can’t change the result, but I am still very proud of the girls. We win together, we lose together and we draw together. Everyone gave their best. I am always proud of them,” said Marijne.

India now have three days to regroup before their classification match, with Marijne planning to use the break to analyse their performance against Australia.

“We played a lot of matches this week. We will see the match and analyse where we can do better. That’s the way we will go into the next match,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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