Coach Sjoerd Marinje couldn’t believe what he was seeing in India’s horror first half of the second leg women’s Olympic qualifier against USA at the Kalinga stadium, Bhubaneswar, on Saturday.

After winning the first leg 5-1, the team conceded four goals in the first half of the second leg and Marinje reflected on the first 30 minutes. “I just didn’t know what was going on there. I was watching with the conditioning coach and we could see so many things going wrong!”

“At half-time I told the girls it’s now 0-0. It’s your moment. Go back with your heads up,” the Dutchman said.

“There was pressure on the girls. The only thing you can do on the pitch is run. Because if you are running, you aren’t thinking about winning or losing.

“I had to take the pressure off the girls. We had to put USA under pressure and make them make mistakes.

“We have a dream and the dream is to go to the Olympics. And the most beautiful colour is gold and preparation starts tomorrow morning,” Marinje asserted.

“We all saw we played well in one half. But now we have to do it for the entire match,” he said while expressing pride in his girls who showed fighting spirit.

The Dutchman also acknowledged his beaten opponents. “I think the US played two very good matches. They played their best hockey from what I saw now,” Marinje said.

India captain Rani Rampal said she kept faith in her team despite the setbacks in the first half.
“For a lot of players, especially youngsters it was the first opportunity. Throughout the game, I never thought it would end our careers, because we have worked a lot for these matches”.

“I know we should have got our act together in the first quarter but I knew we could do anything till the last minute,” the scorer of the match-winning goal said.

It was USA’s story for us today. We converted our chances yesterday, they did so today”.

“Trailing 0-4, you need to work harder. I think the girls put in a lot of energy till the last moment,” Rani said.

The India captain said the team was wary of making mistakes at the back and wanted to play beautiful hockey in the opponents’ half.

“Everyone played responsibly and I didn’t have to tell the players much. After we scored we felt we could control the match,” she revealed.

“The goal came after a good move. When I got the rebound, all I thought of was to shoot the ball into goal,” Rani focused on the moment that won India the tie.

“When you play for so long, you wait for these moments, and work towards it. Moments like qualifying for the Olympics after 36 years (for Rio in 2016) and reaching the World Cup quarterfinals last year.

“Today was one such moment when we did not give up. Especially after conceding,” Rani signed off.