Olympic Qualifier | Indian women look for big win to stay on course to Paris

India's women's hockey team aims to secure an Olympic spot by winning their final group match against Italy.

India’s win against New Zealand on Sunday. January 14, 2024, kept the women’s hockey team’s Olympic hopes alive but being third in a four-team pool with just one game to go isn’t the ideal situation coach Janneke Schopman would have wanted.

With a day’s break on Monday to regroup and get their act together before the final group match against Italy, the Indian team stuck to its routine of only the goalkeepers training for more than an hour. The New Zealand game gave enough indications that the team had managed to shake off the reversal against the USA but it knows it will need to stay on top of its game to avoid any mishaps.

From a disjointed, dysfunctional scattered group to a cohesive one, the turnaround in less than 24 hours was welcome. “I think it was just a shift in mindset. Yesterday we were not good, we struggled as a team and we fought and tried but couldn’t make it click. More than me, the girls had a meeting and then we prepared for NZ. It was just about figuring out how to play hockey again and I think we did that today,” Schopman admitted after Sunday’s game.

Italy might not be as big a threat as the USA but India’s biggest enemy lies within – inconsistency. Mediocre one day, near-perfect the next, the Indian team seems to constantly need to be in a do-or-die mode to perform. “If you think of pressure (against USA), today there was way more than that because we knew that we can’t lose and even a tie is probably not enough, everyone knew what was at stake. I just told them ‘you owe it to yourself to play hockey today, let’s just do it and then we will see what happens,’” Schopman said.

Against Italy, regardless of the ranking, the team will need to again be on the guard and up its scoring possibilities. Like most lower-ranked teams, Italy has a strong defensive structure with reliance on counters and patience and maintaining the structure will be key to India’s success. A win will only be useful if other results go India’s way and with New Zealand taking on USA, it just might come down to goal difference, making both getting maximum goals and denying any to the opposition crucial.

“It was close to perfect, I think we could have awarded ourselves with one more goal -- we had two very big opportunities and could have scored another PC also. It shows where we are and where we want to go in this tournament. (Against Italy) it’s going to be tough. They are a feisty side with their spirit. If we move the ball and are patient and pass and move then our skills will come to shine. We need to get our PCs and make sure we execute them, our strikers need to get into good positions,” Schopman warned.

USA, meanwhile, will be hoping to remain unbeaten to top Pool B – with Germany expected to top Pool A, avoiding them in the semifinals an added incentive to go all out against a Black Sticks side keen to avoid missing an Olympic appearance for the first time since 2000. Playing last, India has the advantage of knowing exactly what will be needed. A win for USA will make calculations easier but a loss or draw will bring out the calculators. For its own sake, the host will be hoping it doesn’t come down to that.