New Delhi: It is a dream finale for hockey fans in the country as PR Sreejesh's India take on arch-rivals Pakistan in the summit clash of the 2016 Asian Champions Trophy hockey tournament in Kuantan, Malaysia.
India entered the final after a hard-fought semi-final win over South Korea where they prevailed in a penalty shootout. Pakistan too booked their place in the final after beating hosts Malaysia in a penalty-shootout.
Defending champions Pakistan will have scores to settle with India, having gone down 2-3 in the round-robin phase.
Team India too knows the importance of this match given the recent political tensions between the two countries. Indian hockey team coach Roelant Oltmans in an exclusive interview told News18 that the political situation does have an impact on the players.
Speaking about whether an India-Pakistan encounter is different from other matches, the Dutch coach admitted that it is a 'special' occasion.
"Ofcourse it a special game no doubt about that, but we always try to approach it as if it’s any other game in a tournament. I know the environment is huge and the political situation in the country has an affect on it," Oltmans said during a telephonic interview.
We should play our game and not become emotional, because the moment you become emotional you forget the plan on how to play that game. This is one of the lessons we learnt during the Champions trophy semi-final in Bhubaneswar in 2014. I think we have learnt from that game and since then we have had good results against Pakistan.
"We love to play them and the atmosphere between the players in the hotel is outstanding. Both teams go all out and all the other teams and the fans also love to watch an India-Pakistan match," the Indian coach said.
Comments
0 comment