Any conversion rate above 30 per cent is great. I’m happy with their speed and ability to create chances in the circle: Roelant Oltmans
As Belgium came back from a goal deficit to beat the European champions Holland 3-2 on Sunday, the entire Indian think-tank – coach Harendra Singh, manager Roelant Oltmans and strategic coach Roger Van Gent – was busy witnessing the European battle for supremacy being decided here at Lucknow's Dhyan Chand Hockey Stadium.
With host India sitting pretty with six points after winning against Canada (4-0) and England (5-3), the Indian coaching staff was probably busy in preparing the road map for the quarterfinal onward knock-out stage. The last league game against South Africa on Monday is of less significance for India in terms of result for the hosts.
But what is important for India colts is to keep the winning momentum rolling and also try and sort out a few age-old issues of conceding goals in the dying minutes. An opponent like South Africa would be best suited to carry out any new experiment.
Keeping in mind that last one-and-a-half years under master tactician Oltmans have been India's most fruitful in a long time, juniors have managed to stun their opponents with their speed and flair so far. South Africans are surely going to find it tough to stop the hosts even though the two nations have never met earlier in this age group competition.
For purely statistical reasons, SA are still in the hunt as they are sitting along with England at the second place with three points each. This is another reason that beating India and then expecting England to go down to minnows Canada would be just too much to ask for.
So, coach Harendra's only aim is to sort out a few issues and keep moving ahead with each passing game. "We need to understand that these youngsters keep waiting for this moment for last four years. And when they finally get any opportunity to play here, the nerves and anxiety do play a big role initially and that's where we see them a bit rusty towards the beginning against Canada, and then conceding goals against England in last moments," Harendra pointed out the reasons.
But one thing that the coach looked concerned about was getting two yellow and two green cards against England. "We need to control our emotions. Better that it has happened here but we can't afford such mistakes in the knockout stage," he said.
Oltmans, on the other hand, looked impressed with the colts' ability to convert penalty corners. "Any conversion rate above 30 per cent is great. I'm particularly happy with their speed and ability to create chances in the circle," said the Dutchman.
India's drag flickers, Harmanpreet Singh and Varun Kumar, have contributed in team's success by scoring three goals so far. The likes of Armaan Qureshi, Parvinder Singh and Mandeep Singh have jelled well up in front to make life difficult for their opponents. But one man who has found special mention by Oltmans was team captain Harjeet Singh, who was the most impressive player against England.
"He is leading by example. He has speed and ability to create chances with his fine passes. He is there amongst the very best," said Oltmans.
Junior World Cup has a unique thing about itself that most of the teams are unread and thus become unpredictable because of unknown commodity. But Harendra is bit happy about such an occasion. "It's good that we didn't play against South Africa so far. This would give me a chance to assess the strength and weakness of my boys. I've always told them to focus on simple hockey and implement what has been taught during camp," a confident coach explained.
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