Bengaluru, 18 March 2021: Star defender of Indian women’s national team Deep Grace Ekka is in upbeat mood nowadays. With a critical eye, she finds that every top team in the world has a unique playing styles which if understood properly provides the Indian team crucial insights. Such analysis, according to her, will help them prepare for the forthcoming Tokyo Olympic Games.

Deep Grace, who had represented India more than 200 caps,  says: “Playing against Argentina and Germany, both highly ranked in the world, with very different and unique playing styles has been very helpful in planning the areas we need to improve in the days leading up to the Olympics.”

“World no.3 Argentina plays man-to-man, and their style is quite conventional. Personally, for me, playing against Germany was quite intriguing because of their style and attacking game. There was a lot to learn about how the German players communicate on the field and how they create space in pursuit of circle entries. Their attack is aggressive, they are quick and think on their feet.”

“I felt that Germany and Netherlands have very similar style. They tackle two-on-one and the way they attack is very similar. I feel we have gained a lot of confidence playing against Argentina and Germany. We have no inhibitions or fear in our mind when we play these top teams now and another key element has been our fitness. We don’t tire easily anymore and that will help us bounce back in the game and finish well even if there are early setbacks.”

“I feel we have improved a lot in our PC defending. We need to avoid giving away PCs. We have improved in defending PCs. If we have given away 5-6 PCs in a match, we restrict conversion to single or two now, which was not the case earlier.” .

Grace credits this positive improvement to team’s Analytical Coach Jenneke Schopman. “Since Jenneke has joined the team, we have paid a lot of attention to PC defending and earlier, we would just take positions but now she’s helped us work on our movements while defending a PC and that has made a lot of difference,” she said.