"Need to have better individual presence against a team like Netherlands," says Indian Women's Hockey Chief Coach Janneke Schopman

~  The Indian team led by Savita will take on Netherlands in friendlies scheduled on 26^th and 28^th January ~

Cape Town, 25 January 2023: The Indian Women's Hockey Team are scheduled to play two more friendlies with the Netherlands, currently ranked no.1 in the FIH World rankings. In their ongoing tour of South Africa, India won three matches against the home team and drew a match in their four-match Series against the hosts while they lost 1-3 to Netherlands in their first friendly tie held on 23^rd January. 

As part of their Asian Games preparations, this Tour has helped the team analyze how they adapt to playing higher and lower ranked teams. Elaborating on it, Chief Coach Janneke Schopman said, "It’s great that Hockey India has provided us with the opportunity to travel here with 22 players and play against South Africa and now the Netherlands."

"Playing a lower ranked and a higher ranked team gives us the chance to see where the work areas are, the improvements we make and what is going well." 

Schopman further expressed her thoughts on a strong performance against South Africa, where the team won 5-1, 7-0 and 4-0 and drew 2-2 in the last game against the home team. "The matches against South Africa was good. It’s difficult to play a team four times but we showed great improvements in ball possession and attacking the circle. The last game we made some defensive errors but overall we also managed to control the games which was an important focus point for us," stated Schopman. 

Talking about the match against Netherlands, she said, "We played a good 1st game against the Netherlands. Their speed and quick decision making we struggled with in the 1st quarter but we got a better handle on it later in the game and managed to compete well. We know we have to have a good individual presence against them as well as using our skills and speed ourselves in attack, hopefully we can show that in the next games to come, keeping in mind we have to defend strongly against them." 

On 26th January 2023, India will take on Netherlands at 1900hrs IST.