Bhubaneswar: India's chief coach Graham Reid on Sunday said the team needs a mental conditioning coach going ahead after the hosts lost to New Zealand in penalty shootout in a crossover match to crash out of the hockey World Cup here. Reid's comments could be an indication that his team was not able to deal with the mental aspect of the game as the home side once again dominated their crossover match but squandered two goal lead twice to end at 3-3 in the regulation time.
"We need to do something different perhaps. Following this, we will work on how we can get a mental coach involved. I think that is an important part for the future of the team," a distraught Reid said at the post match conference. "As far as the drills or training are concerned, we do what all other teams do. I have been in this game for a long time and I know what other teams are doing. If there is anything necessary, a silver bullet out there, I do think that (is) mentally."
Missed chances
In the shootout, India and New Zealand were tied 3-3 after five shots. Captain Harmanpreet Singh had the chance to seal the match in the first round of sudden death when New Zealand's Nic Woods fluffed his chance, but he inexplicably chose to take a direct hit from a distance and wasted the golden chance. Next, both Raj Kumar Pal and Sean Findlay scored as the scores were tied. Both Sukhjeet and Hayden Phillips missed next to keep the scoreline level. Shamsher Singh finally missed while Sam Lane converted to seal a 5-4 shootout win for New Zealand and break the hearts of the 15,000 full-to-the-brim crowd at the Kalinga Stadium.
Lack of consistency
Asked why he took a shot like that in a crucial moment, Harmanpreet said, "It was a good opportunity and I wanted to score and seal the match. But it did not happen." On whether captaincy has put pressure on him and affected his performance, he said, "It is a team game. Everybody has been talking about my (lack of) penalty corner conversions. But I had not gone into a match without wanting to score. I feel no pressure. I have to work harder and the same for the team also." Reid said the team would need to go back to the drawing board and sort out the mistakes. "Tonight, we lacked consistency. In the last quarter, for example, we let ourselves down. We threw the ball away, kept doing stuff like that, Things like that made it very difficult for ourselves.
