India women's hockey team hurting without penalty corner specialist
Indian women’s team head coach Mathias Ahrens was dejected due to the lack of a penalty corner specialist in the Indian team. He said that the Indian team would have done a lot better if they had a drag-flicker in their squad.
India has just converted 1 penalty corner in their 3 games in the tournament.
He said, “We don't have a drag-flicker for penalty corners, but we have other skills to pose the danger to the rival goal.”
He wants the team to go for more indirect variations from the set pieces as they don’t have a specialist drag-flicker.
He admitted, “We have to work on a lot more tactics.”
The 51-year old expects the team to do much better at executing their plans by taking the opposition by surprise and getting more goal-scoring opportunities.
The Dutchman added that he did notice a young drag flicker in the training camp, but she wasn‘t yet ready for her introduction at the international stage. There are many under-21 players playing for the senior team at the moment and according to Mathias, they have a brilliant opportunity to prove themselves at the international stage.
He added, “Drag-flicks is a skills that takes time to improve, and I did notice a good drag-flicker in the training camp ahead of the tournament. There is one decent drag-flicker among the under-21 players, but it was too early for her skills to be pushed into top grade international hockey.”
India, coming from a morale-boosting 3-1 win over Poland, will take on Australia in their last game of the league stage on 27th June.
The match will be telecast LIVE on Star Sports at 23:30 IST.