Netherlands coach Delmi said, the team’s inexperience is the biggest challenge before the World Cup
Netherlands head coach Jeroen Delmy believes his team will have to overcome inexperience as they eye a fourth trophy at the Men’s Hockey World Cup starting here on January 13. The three-time world champion Netherlands team reached Bhubaneswar on Wednesday. Thierry Brinkman is captaining the Netherlands, the silver medalist of the previous tournament. After finalizing their preparations here, the team will travel to Rourkela where they will face Malaysia in their first match on January 14.
The Netherlands team is one of the most successful hockey teams in the world, having won the title in 1973, 1990 and 1998, in addition to reaching the final of the last two tournaments. Coach Delmy, however, on reaching here said that he will see how his players overcome the challenge of inexperience. Delmi said, “The biggest challenge will be the inexperience of the team and we may have to face surprises in the World Cup. It will be interesting to see how we overcome the challenges in the tournament. I have full faith in my team.
Netherlands are placed in Pool C along with Chile, Malaysia and New Zealand. After the match against Malaysia, the team will face New Zealand in Rourkela on January 16 and end their group stage campaign against Chile in Bhubaneswar on January 19. Delmi said, “I think we have to present the challenge match by match and then we will see where we end up in the tournament.” Our first target is to reach the quarter-finals and then make it to the semi-finals.
He said, “Then we will see how things go in the final. Obviously if we reach the final, we will hope to win the tournament. However, this time we have a completely different team and you cannot compare the current team with the team of the previous tournament. 16 teams participating in the tournament Australia, Belgium, Netherlands, India, Argentina, Germany, New Zealand, England, France, Korea, Malaysia, Spain, South Africa, Japan, Chile and Wales. Captain Brinkmann said the team would take a very short break before returning to rigorous training. He said, “The last few months have been very good for us in terms of preparation for the World Cup. The team is fully prepared. We have just arrived in India and will take some rest before starting preparations for the first match.
