Since taking over four years ago, Australian import coach Neil Hawgood did not get a kid of hockey moment that that he got today in Sengkong, Singapore, where Deepika Thakur led India turned a Champagne stuff to stun higher ranked China to win their maiden Asian Champions Trophy.
Explaining his moment of joy, the coach said: “We progressed at Rio Olympics. We today showed a different game compared to the previous one (against same China). Its good we got finish the way we did.”
He went on to explain the game that will leave an indelible mark on the scene: “First two quarters were really good, we went well. But were shaky in the third. We were good again in the fourth, which mattered”.
“We got the result, we need to just move on”.
On the overall progress his team made since he landed in India for the task of coaching Indian women, he had to say this:
“In my first press conference I told we should first be top in Asia. That was the first step”.
“We almost did this here, as we hold the trophy”.
But I certainly worry on the inconsistency part.
The coach almost sends a note of caution to the victorious team and joyous Indians: “We need to improve here on, a lot work need to be done”.
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There were inconsistencies in seven days here”.
“Now we should be awake to real world, and real challenge once we got back home”.
These girls lead rest of India in Women’s hockey. No one can underestimate us in four years on.