And his words of wisdom worked like magic as an injured India beat New Zealand 2-1 to win a CWG medal – a bronze – in a 1-1 shoot-out after a gap of 16 years. ,
The Indians were undone by Fox, a formidable stopwatch by technical officials in the shoot-out against Australia, who eventually lost 0-3 after a 1-1 stalemate after 60 minutes.
“We gave it all against Australia but how the shoot-out started it wasn’t great. But it is what it is and we have to accept it and move on,” Schopman said excitedly.
“After yesterday’s game, we had a team meeting and I said to the girls ‘Get angry, get frustrated, get all your anger out… But tomorrow is a new game and we need to settle down. We have to move on. We knew we could fight for any team and the girls showed great resilience.”
A wrong timekeeping move by a technical official in the shootout robbed India of India’s chances against Australia on Saturday. Rosie Malone thwarts Australia’s first attempt in a penalty shoot-out as India
Savita pulled out a brilliant block.
But Malone got a second chance after a timekeeping error by the officials and this time the striker scored to change the pace of the game.
“It’s not the umpire’s fault, they were really apologetic. I urge the FIH not to just look at the rules because there’s more to the rules than the rules,” Schopman said.
“There’s no point in filing a complaint. Have we been robbed? Maybe, but it doesn’t matter…”
The Dutch coach said that he always believed in the potential of his players, despite having a normal World Cup ahead of the Commonwealth Games.
“I knew we can play hockey and we have shown. India has a lot of talent, they have very good hands so why shouldn’t they have more balls than the opponent.
“The World Cup taught us a valuable lesson but the belief is always there. It takes time but we know we can compete against anyone,” Schopman said.
After going through some rough times taking over the reigns of the team, Schopman finally tasted success and apparently got emotional.
“I’m still emotional. It’s been a tough few weeks for me. Many of our matches in the World Cup were tight 50-50. So I wanted the girls to win and get a medal they deserve.”
India captain Savita, who went on to star in the win over New Zealand with her scintillating performance in the shoot-out, gave credit to Schopman.
“As a captain and a senior player, I would give all the credit for the medal to our coach Janneke. He inspired us and told us not to give up till the last minute,” she said.
Returning to the Games Village, the Indian women received a warm welcome from the men and Manpreet Singh and his teammates lined up from both sides to applaud their female counterparts.
Savita said, “It was special for us. It was a surprise. We didn’t know that they were waiting for us to welcome us. Now we want to have a gold from them.”
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