The Indian Hockey Team is all set to feature in a 3 team invitational tournament in Dusseldorf along with Belgium and Germany. The two week training camp in India culminated last night, and soon after the Indian team left for Germany. This tournament would provide the Indian players with some much needed match practice ahead of next month’s Hockey World League Semi Final.
“Playing top teams like Germany and Belgium (both Rio Olympic Medalists), will help us a lot ahead of the Hero Hockey World League Semi Final (Men),” stated Manpreet ahead of the departure.
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“If we play well against them, we will gain a lot of confidence and it will give us a little more time to make minor changes in our game and iron out any mistake. We will be able to assess our performance and get ready for the bigger challenge in London,” he added.
After the Invitational tournament in Germany, the Indian team would head to London for the Hero Hockey World League semi final. India would initially play warm up games with Argentina and Great Britain, before launching a full fledged attack on Scotland (June 15), Canada (June 17), Pakistan (June 18) and the Netherlands (June 20) in the pool stage.
“We cannot single out any one team as a tough team to beat because every team will play their best considering this is a prestigious tournament and also a World Cup qualifier.
“We cannot take any team lightly and our aim will be to start on a winning note and earn those three points,” he added.
