Times of India: We are almost at par with top teams: Oltmans

BENGALURU: A few hours after the historic silver medal at the Champions Trophy, a fatigued Indian men’s hockey team hit the road again. Destination: Valencia, for a six-nation invitational tournament which gets under way on June 27. As the team left London on Sunday, India’s chief coach Roelant Oltmans, in an interview with TOI, said the side’s improvement was there for all to see. Excerpts:

What is the biggest takeaway from the Champions Trophy performance?
The biggest positive is that we are making good progress and that’s what I was looking for. Also, it showed that we are almost on a par with the top teams in the world. That is something we had to start believing in before the Olympic Games.The event also gave our team the opportunity to play some big matches ahead of Rio. At the same time, it is important that we don’t get complacent and continue to make progress in the build-up to the Olympics.

Against whom, according to you, did we play our best hockey?

We played well in more than one match. For example, in the match against Korea , we completely dominated the game. Not a goal or penalty corner was conceded. Having said that, we can be critical about the game because we scored just twice, instead of scoring 4-5 goals. And, of course, the final against Australia: bouncing back from the 2-4 result the previous day was encouraging.

What are your thoughts on the defence which has been inconsistent?
There are positives in that area too but we conceded too many penalty corners against Australia (in the final). Overall our defence was good. We played different defence structures and that is encouraging for the future.

How much do you think the team has improved mentally?

If you look at the back-to-back matches in this tournament, we won two on the trot and performed better in the second match against Australia. This shows that along with our physical fitness our mental health is also improving.

How important will the six-nation tournament in Valencia be for India’s Olympic build-up?
It is not at the same level of Champions Trophy as it is not a world-ranking tournament. But Germany, Argentina and Ireland are in the fray and these teams have been pooled with us in Rio. New Zealand and Spain too are participating, but these are teams which we may face later in the tournament (in Rio). So, it is an important tournament.

How important is the tournament for experienced defender Birendra Lakra?
This tournament will be a test for Birendra who is playing his first tournament after undergoing surgery for a ligament rupture in his right knee.