One last chance: Indian women's hockey team play Japan for Paris berth

Ranchi: The Indian women’s hockey team will have their last shot at the 2024 Paris Olympics berth when they take on Japan in the third-place game on Friday.

India endured a heartbreaking loss to Germany in the penalty shootout after holding them 2-2 in regulation time.

“It is an emotional loss… I don't know what exactly to say about this,” these were the words of coach Janneke Shopman who had put on a brave face after the loss.

India played extremely well in the majority of the game to hold the Germans back but lost to an exceptional shot by Lisa Nolte and some shoddy attempts in a penalty shootout.

Playing against Japan in a must win game, Janneke believes that they have to be ready and don't have any other option.

“We will discuss it again. You know now they're just disappointed and you need to give time to the disappointment. We can't reset now. We have to reset tomorrow morning and that's what we'll do and tomorrow we'll be ready. I know they'll be ready. Some of them already were ready and others were not so much. We just need some time,” said Janneke.

While the Indian team did well to contain Germany, their impatience in the middle was something to be worried about.

Talking about the same, Janneke said,“They get a little bit impatient, I would say. And when they get impatient, then we start doing that. I can't always blame them for it. They want to go to the goal direct and then it's kind of like the shortest way to do it. And I think that was key for us today that we were able to actually manage large part of the games quite well and move all the game.”

The Indian team will have to keep away the disappointment and reset in less than 24 hours to play against Japan who lost to the USA in the semi-finals.

“We know Japan well. So, we'll go back to the drawing boards to make a plan for the Japan game, making sure that we can execute our press well, that we can move the ball. Well, today we struggled a little bit at times and I think we got ourselvelost to the USA in the semi-finals.,” said Janneke.

India has defeated Japan in the past two meetings in the Asian Games and the Asian Champions Trophy.

Backed by a vocal crowd of 5000, the Indian team will have their last chance to secure the 2024 Paris Olympics berth and they would not like to miss it.