Hockey coach Roelant Oltmans backs misfiring strikers

Raipur: India’s forwardline might be facing a lot of flak for its poor show in the ongoing Hockey World League Final here, scoring just two goals in three games, but chief coach Roelant Oltmans on Tuesday defended his strikers saying they have been let down by the final pass.

 

India’s strike force of Akashdeep Singh, Ramandeep Singh, S.V. Sunil, Talwinder Singh and Mohammed Amir have been a big disappointment in the tournament so far, wasting numerous scoring opportunities. 

 

Out of the five chances, only Akashdeep hit a goal during the 1-1 draw against Olympic champions Germany. But Oltmans came in support of his attackline, putting the blame on the final delivery. “It is disappointing but like I said before, you just can’t blame the forwards. We also need to look at the kind of passes they received. Sometimes it looks like a forward is not picking up the ball, but the pass itself is terrible. Sometimes it’s a bumpy ball, the direction is not good, speed is not good and seems that the forward made the mistake,” Oltmans said here after India finished their pool stage at last position with just one point, courtesy the draw against Germany. They still progressed to the quarterfinals because of the format which allows all the eight teams a chance to make it to knockouts.