FIH Pro League: Manpreet Singh hopes India can continue winning run
The Indian men's hockey team, under the able leadership of Manpreet Singh, are looking to continue their winning run in the FIH Hockey Pro League. The team are slated to meet France and South Africa for the second time.
The Indian team began their FIH Pro League campaign with back-to-back victories against France and South Africa. In the opening match, India beat France 5-0 while in the second match, India thumped South Africa 10-2.
Indian hockey team captain Manpreet Singh said it was good to start the new season - an important one - on a positive note, with wins. Speaking about India's first match against France, Manpreet said:
"It was good to start off the campaign with a win. Our first quarter was patchy but after the first quarter we played a rather composed game. We played to our structure and converted from the chances we created."
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Manpreet Singh believes France are an unpredictable team and on a good day they can surprise any opponent.
"It's important we don't take them lightly when we play against them on Saturday. We saw what France is capable of when they played against the Netherlands. The match went into a shootout after a 2-2 draw and eventually they lost in the shootout. Even when we played against them, they created good chances to score," he said.
Manpreet Singh stresses on consistency for Indian Hockey Team
India beat South Africa 10-2 in their second match, with newcomer Jugraj Singh scoring a a hat-trick.
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Though it was a big-margin victory for India, Manpreet Singh expressed that there were several aspects in which the team could have done better, particularly in the second half.
"Definitely the highlight of this match was both new comers to the team Jugraj and Abhishek scoring goals and also creating opportunities. But when we watched the videos from this match, we definitely felt that as a team, we could have done better in the second half. There were lapses in the defense that allowed South Africa to come back into the game and we didn't carry on the same tempo with which we started the match," the captain opined.
Manpreet also stressed on consistency going forward.
"We will need to play consistently in all four quarters and that will focus on doing that in the upcoming two matches against France and South Africa. It would obviously be good if we could end the tour with winning points," he concluded.
India are currently placed third in the pool standings behind the Netherlands and Belgium respectively, who have played four matches.
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