Dutchman Sjoerd Marijne was impressed with the Indian women’s hockey team’s performance as they recently defeated hosts New Zealand 2-0 to win the Nations Cup in Auckland. They also sealed qualification for the Women’s FIH Pro League, but the head coach feels his side needs to improve their conversion rate, noting they didn’t score many field goals during the tournament.
India were in hot form during the tournament, defeating USA, Japan and Uruguay in the pool stage, before easing past Chile in the semifinal.
‘We create enough opportunities every match, but we don’t make enough field goals’: Sjoerd Marijne
Speaking to Hindustan Times, Marijne said, “You need to always improve, of course, in every area.”
“I think if I watch this tournament, it’s mainly converting the chances into goals. We create enough opportunities every match, but we don’t make enough field goals. That’s something we need to keep working on. But I am very happy, especially the way we played in the semis and the final. Of course, in the semis we scored a lot of goals, but in a final, it’s never easy. We had a few big opportunities, but we were still able to score two goals. But we hardly got anything against us. That is our game, defensively we are very structured, very strong.
“So I was very happy with that, and that is something we have to keep improving in the next year. If you see our Pro League matches, it goes up and down, there are a lot of opportunities for both sides, and we must stay in that area,” he added.
This is Marijne’s second stint as the head coach of the Indian women’s hockey team. In his first stint, he led them to a fourth-placed finish at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Before the hockey tournament began in Tokyo, the Indians were not even serious contenders, but then they proved their doubters wrong by reaching the semifinals for the first time.
They lost to the Netherlands (1-5), Germany (0-2) and Great Britain (1-4) in the group stage. But then bounced back to beat Ireland (1-0), South Africa (4-3), qualifying for the quarterfinals.
In the quarters, they shocked Australia with a 1-0 victory and then lost to Argentina (1-2) in the semifinals. In the bronze medal match, they fell to Great Britain, losing 3-4. After India’s defeat, Marijne also stepped down as head coach. He returned to the fold on January 2 this year, following the departure of Harendra Singh.
