Paris: Harmanpreet Singh, captain of the Indian men’s hockey team, on Monday admitted that his players need to hone their finishing skills after a 1-1 draw against Argentina in a Pool B match at the 33rd Olympic Games here on Monday. Harmanpreet scored the all-important equaliser on the penalty corner in the dying minutes as India and Argentina shared one point each. India conceded in the 22nd minute of the match and failed to find the back of the net till the 58th minute.
“The team is playing really well. We’re strong defensively, with or without the ball. With the ball, we’re creating a lot of chances and getting into the opponent’s circle. We can improve the outcome and the finishing in the upcoming games. We have a plan, we’re creating chances, but our finishing needs to be better,” Harmanpreet said in an exclusive interview with JioCinema.
The ace drag-flicker also acknowledged the team’s poor penalty corner conversion against New Zealand and Argentina and said they have to come up with better planning after the team only scored one out of ten penalty corners against the 2016 Rio Olympics gold medallist on Monday.
“We had our discussions with the coach on where to flick, and we were just following that. To be honest, if you look at the rushers today and during the match against New Zealand, and even our rushers, the first rushers are playing a very important role for every team. We need to devise a plan and strategy on how to beat them. Hopefully, in the next match, we will come up with a better plan and finish well,” Harmanpreet said.
On scoring the all-important equaliser just before the final hooter, Harmanpreet said, “The coach tells us where to flick the ball for every penalty corner. They’re sitting outside and analyzing the game, so we just follow the planning. But we fought and created chances until the last whistle. You definitely feel relieved when you score the equaliser, but the result wasn’t in our favour as we wanted to win the match.”
India will next lock horns with Ireland, who have lost both their matches in the tournament so far, on Tuesday but the captain is in no mood to take the opponents lightly.
“We plan to focus on one match at a time. Till now, we were focused on the Argentina match. Now, whatever time is left before tomorrow’s match, we will analyse Ireland’s game because they’re a great team as well. They have played well so far and we know that no team is easy to beat,” Harmanpreet concluded.
–IANS