K. ARUMUGAM

Belgium coach Shane McLeod envisages playing India in the semifinals if his team beats Spain in their quarterfinal early on Sunday.

The New Zealander who guided Belgium to their finest hockey moment – winning the World Cup in Bhubaneswar in 2018 – spent time talking about India after his team’s 2-2 draw against Great Britain in their last league game in the Tokyo Olympics men’s hockey competition.

“I see India in the semifinals, playing us, and I can tell you it won’t be a present,” the Kiwi said. McLeod gave reasons for being wary of India who play Great Britain in another quarterfinal later on the same day. “India have made real progress and I was interested to see how they were doing after the Covid crisis set in,” he said.

“There were a lot of questions about how teams can play and train. There are lot of good players in India and they were not affected as some of the other countries.

“I feel they have been able to operate better with bigger squads and a lot of talented players and that makes them dangerous for us and other nations,” McLeod said.

“India have done well here. The score-line flattered the Australians when India played them but they haven’t been troubled since then.”

The New Zealander, a former Black Sticks player and coach, revealed his pre-tournament analysis had India second to Australia in the final pool standings.

He did some crystal gazing into the intriguing India vs Great Britain quarterfinal.

“It’s going to be a match of different styles. India are talented and full of flair. Maybe not so organized but have flashes of brilliance,” McLeod said.

“Great Britain are well structured, do a lot of hard running and are good at breaking a game down.

“It’s really a clash of two hockey philosophies.”