Foreign players hopeful of India’s good showing in WC

NEW DELHI: India will be a force to reckon with in the forthcoming hockey World Cup starting on Sunday as the hosts have better knowledge of ground conditions and home support behind them, feel foreign players.

Presently, India might be languishing at the 12th spot in world ranking but veteran Dutch goalkeeper Guus Vogles is hopeful that the eight-time Olympic champions will be among the top fours teams in the February 28-March 13 mega-event.

“I don’t know how to see India in the tournament. They are playing at their home and I hope they will do really well and qualify for the semifinals,” said the 34-year-old custodian, who was a member of the Netherlands side that won back-to-back gold medals at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and also at the 2000 Sydney Games.

“Having said that, they are not our major concern right now because they are not in our pool,” he added.

Having received a drubbing at the hands of India in a home Test series in December last year, Argentine forward Pedro Ibarra too feels that the home team has the potential to progress far in the event.

“India are really a very good team. We have played against them in Argentina last year but we lost. I am hopeful that they will have a very good tournament,” the 25-year-old said dragflicker said.

“In Sandeep (Singh), they have one of the best flickers in the world and everybody knows that,” he added.

Young German striking sensation Florian Fuchs went a step ahead and said not only India, their sub-continent rival Pakistan too will hold a good stead in the tournament.

“Both India and Pakistan have advantage on weather conditions. Both the countries have similar weather which will work in their favour. But we have a week’s time to acclimatise to the conditions,” the 18-year-old, who will be playing his first World Cup said.

Although, Germany are the defending champions and are on the brink of registering a hat-trick of World Cup titles, Fuchs feels Australia is the side to watch out for in the 12-team tournament.

“Australia are very strong side. I consider them the favourites because of their ability to attack as well as defence. It is not easy to play against them,” Fuchs said.

“Our primary aim is to reach the semis. From there anything can happen. Right now it very difficult to say whether we can win three World Cup in a row.

“We have a young and ambitious team. We would definitely look to win the title but our prime focus will be to put up a good show,” he added.