Indian women’s hockey team eyes Paris Olympics, campaign against America begins
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Recovering from the disappointment of finishing third in the Asian Games, the Indian women’s hockey team will start its campaign against America in the FIH Olympic Qualifiers on Saturday and will be eyeing a ticket to Paris by taking advantage of playing on its home ground.
Hosts India, Germany, Czech Republic, Italy, Japan, USA, Chile and New Zealand will play in the Paris Olympic Qualifiers here. The Paris Olympics will be played between 26 July and 11 August. World number five team Germany has got the highest ranking while India is at sixth position. New Zealand is at ninth place in the ranking while Japan is at 11th, Chile at 14th, USA at 15th, Italy at 19th and Czech Republic at 25th.
India has been placed in Pool B along with New Zealand, Italy, USA. Germany, East Asian champions Japan, Chile and Czech Republic are in Pool A. After America, India has to play New Zealand on 14 January and Italy on 16 January. The semi-finals will be held on January 18 and the final on January 19. India and America have played against each other 15 times since 1983, out of which America won nine times while India could win only four times and two matches were drawn.
Despite being low in the rankings, the American team can prove to be dangerous. “We missed qualifying for the Olympics through the Asian Games but that is a thing of the past now,” India’s head coach Yaneke Shopman said in a pre-tournament press conference. Is sure of. We have to perform better than before and if we can do this then we will be able to qualify for the Olympics.
Nine days before the tournament, India’s experienced striker Vandana Kataria was ruled out due to a facial fracture during practice. Vandana, who recently completed 300 international matches for India, was the pivot of the forward line. Baljeet Kaur replaced her. The team will miss Vandana who has been an integral part of the Indian team for a decade and has played in all major tournaments from Rio Olympics to Tokyo Olympics. She is the first Indian woman player to score a hat-trick in the Olympics. India will also need to improve on penalty corners, which has been a problem for a long time.
Just before the tournament, former India drag-flicker Rupinder Pal Singh has made the players practice. Shopman said, “Rupinder is a very experienced player and he knows how to handle pressure inside the D. His session helped Gurjeet Kaur and Deepika a lot.
In the absence of Vandana, there will be pressure on Lalremsiami, Sangeeta Kumari, Deepika and Baljeet while the defense will consist of Nikki Pradhan, Udita, Ishika Chaudhary and Monica. The responsibility of midfield will be on experienced players like Nisha, Neha, Salima Tete, Navneet Kaur. Captain Savita’s experience will be useful in goalkeeping. On the first day, Germany will face Chile, Japan will face Czech Republic and New Zealand will face Italy.
Disclaimer: IndiaTheNews has not edited this news. This news has been published from PTI-language feed.
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