Ranchi, Jan 12 (PTI) New Zealand women’s hockey team is determined to prove a point during its maiden visit to India, with coach Phil Burrows terming the Black Sticks’ second pool match against the hosts as “special” moment for his wards.
Both India and New Zealand are placed in a tough Pool B in the FIH Olympic Qualifier here, alongside Italy and the United States, while Germany, former Asian Games champions Japan, Chile and Czech Republic are in Pool A.
New Zealand, ranked ninth in the world, will open their campaign against Italy on Saturday before taking on world no. 6 India the next day.
“We know game 2 is going to be pretty crazy for the girls. None of our group have experience of playing in India before, so the second match will be pretty special for them,” coach Burrows said ahead of their match.
“Germany certainly is a favourite, India is going to be tough to beat in their conditions. We want to be there as well. It’s a tough pool, we just have to play well and try to get to the semifinals.” Burrows feels India will hold an edge over other teams as they are the tournament hosts.
“They (India) probably have the advantage of playing in their own conditions. They played a tournament (Asian Champions Trophy last year) here recently, so that gives them a bit more advantage than us.” But, Burrows is confident about his side’s performance in the tournament despite not playing too many competitive matches against top teams.
“We spent a bit of time in the USA, we played 5 matches against the US, which was a beneficial for us. We then had a break in Christmas which we usually do and then next stop was in Malaysia in the heat. It was pretty tough for the girls but then again it was a good preparation leading into here,” he said.
Megan Hull, New Zealand’s joint captain along with Olivia Merry, said international hockey is all about delivering in big moments and there can’t be anything bigger than earning a ticket to this year’s Paris Olympics.
“We play hockey to play in these big moments, so it’s a challenge but also a really exciting opportunity to have such good matches.
“Going into the Olympic Games is not a small feat. Anybody who goes into the Olympic Games earns and deserves that and that’s certainly something we have to do, we have to earn it,” she said.
Merry is in no mood to think about India just now and will be approaching match by match in their pursuit of topping the pool.
“As a group we are just taking it game by game. Italy first and then we will focus on India. We have a pretty strong pool but we will be aiming to finish on top of the pool.”
Source: PTI News
