FIH Pro League: Objective is to start strong, says Fulton ahead of Belgium clash

Fulton's focus is to start strong against Belgium as the Indian hockey team aims for momentum in the FIH Pro League.

For the last few years, the Indian men’s hockey team has reaped the benefits of playing a large chunk of their matches and major tournaments at home, including World Cups among others. The first four matches of the FIH Pro League are, however, the only games the team will play at home this year and coach Craig Fulton is both aware of the challenge and keen to build the right momentum through the week.

“That’s what I said 18 months ago, we’ve got to get used to playing outside. It does change things a lot. You’re like just another team in another country. You don’t have this environment and the Indian way, Indian food, Indian culture and everything that we thrive on. But the objective is still the same.

“The challenge with Indian teams away from home is they start slow. That’s just how it has happened and then when our backs are against the wall, we come out fighting. Our objective is to play away and start strong,” Fulton admitted ahead of the season opener against Belgium here.

The two games each against Belgium and Argentina here will set the tone for the team for the rest of the year that includes the World Cup and the Asian Games. Fulton, however, is more focussed on the immediate. “It was nice to give them a break after the Hockey India League and then we needed to get up to speed and to play our structure, not every kind of other team’s different structure. We need to play our Indian way with defence first mindset and it’s exciting.

“I think what we need to do is play the Indian way, have a good structure in place on and off the ball. But we allow the players to use their instinct, flair and skills within that structure. I think we’ve done a good job of reminding everyone how we want to play against Belgium and Argentina, they’re flying high and have got a good amount of points, we’ll test ourselves and go from there,” Fulton added after an intense practice session.

On Tuesday, Belgium rode on three strikes from Tom Boon and two penalty strokes to come back from a two-goal early deficit and win 5-3 against Argentina.