India Head Coach Graham Reid flayed his team for making errors in the basics after their shock 4-5 loss to France in their FIH Junior World Cup at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.
“We made errors in trapping, overheads, shots at goals and not putting pressure on the ball,” the Australian said. “We created enough opportunities, even hit the post twice, but the difference between us and the French is that they put theirs away. We didn’t.
“It’s very hard for a team to give away five goals and expect to win,” Reid, who guided the senior string to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic bronze medal, said. Reid, though, gave credit where it was due. “France wanted to win, you could see it in their eyes. Our boys too, but things didn’t go well. “It’s hard to get coordination on the pitch if the basics are not right. We weren’t marking close enough at the back. We gave France too much territory and they made us pay.”
The Australian refused to cite the lack of international matches as a factor. “Let’s not make that an excuse. All countries have suffered here. But, yes, our senior team learned a huge amount by touring Europe and Argentina and that helped,” he said.
He also refuted notions that the junior team got into a mould by playing the senior team in practice. “I think they played their own type of game…we asked them to play like Germany but in reality it wasn’t the case,” Reid said.