India women's team after defeating USA in first leg of Hockey Olympic Qualifiers
Indian women's hockey team coach Sjoerd Marijne has admitted that he was completely flummoxed by what was happening in the first half of the second leg of India's Olympic qualifier against USA on Saturday.
India came into the match with a 5-1 lead in the first leg but that lead was wiped off as they conceded four goals in a nightmarish first two quarters.
"The first half, I was like what is going on here, and we really reacted. I was watching with the conditioning coach, and wondering what is going on. There were so many things that were going wrong," he said.
"At half time, I told the girls that it's 0-0. It's your moment, go with your heads up. There's pressure on the girls. The only thing you could do on the pitch is run. Because if you are running, you are not thinking about winning or losing. I had to take pressure off the girls. We had to put USA under pressure and make them commit mistakes.
"We all could see that we played well in one half. But now we have to do it for the entire match. But I am proud of the fighting spirit shown by the girls," Marijne said.
He said the team won't be resting and that their preparations for the Olympics will start immediately.
"We have a dream and the dream is to go to the Olympics, and the most beautiful colour in the Olympics is gold. Our preparation for the Olympics starts tomorrow morning," he said.
Captain Rani Rampal, who scored what turned out to be the winning goal in the fourth quarter, said that the team never really lost hope despite going 0-4 down in the first half.
"We converted our chances on Friday, they converted theirs on Saturday," she said.
"Trailing 0-4, you need to work harder. I think the girls put in a lot of energy till the last moment. Throughout the game, I never thought that it would end our careers, because we have worked a lot for these matches. I knew we can do anything till the last minute," the skipper said.
