India’s Dutch coach Sjoerd Marijne praised his team for a “good fight” against Germany despite the 0-2 defeat in the women’s Olympic competition on Monday.
“We missed our opportunities especially the penalty stroke but that’s sports and nobody is to blame,” he said.
“I am happy with the energy we showed against a team that is very strong on the ball. However, I have told the girls that I want to see an improvement especially in making use of the chances that come our way,” the Dutchman said.
“We don’t get too many chances against tough teams like The Netherlands and Germany and we must make use of them. We also gave away two easy goals,” Marijne reflected on the Pool A match.
“I was very happy with the energy and I am hopeful that the results will come. We are taking the good things from this match. This is our second match and we played better than against The Netherlands. It’s tough playing the two strongest sides in the competition.
“We are still in the tournament and we will take the good things from this match. Our next match is against Great Britain (the defending champions) and we are working on improvement,” he added.
Goalkeeper Savita Punia looked back on a good fight but rued the little mistakes.
“They took advantage of our errors. We knew that Germany is a very good team and they made use of their chances and we missed ours. But we are learning from this match,” Savita said.
She affirmed that the team is getting used to the turf on which they didn’t get much practice time because of the Covid pandemic and issues related.
Captain Rani Rampal was pleased with the good fight and effort shown by her team but said the flaws that cost the team will be put under the scanner.