Gold Coast, Australia: Sjoerd Marijne, the coach of the Indian senior men’s team was quite happy on April 11 and understandably so. His team overcame a strong opponent, England, in its last preliminary league match which helped India top the group and avoid playing reigning world champions Australia in the semifinals.
But more importantly, Marijne’s team improved on its performance and the players managed to twice comeback from a goal deficit and also scored twice in the final two minutes of the match – instead of conceding as they usually do against strong opponents.
Though England are ranked a rung lower than India, they are dangerous customers and India have always struggled against them in recent times.
India pushed for victory in the final minute and scored the winner when Mandeep Singh deflected a ball high into the net.
The Dutch coach said the players were more disciplined and that the fact that they scored twice that too two minutes before the end of the match showed they are mentality strong and ready for the bigger challenges.
“The most important aspect of today’s performance was that the boys played much, much better than the previous three matches. The individual efforts of most players were better than those in previous matches, so I am happy with that,” said coach Marijne.
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