Indian hockey team head coach Graham Rid said after losing against New Zealand on Sunday night and being out of the World Cup, we need a mental conditioning coach to move forward. Reid’s point shows that the players of the Indian men’s hockey team cannot handle the pressure of important matches. In Sunday’s crossover tie, New Zealand beat India 5-4 in the penalty shootout. Both the teams were tied at 3-3 till the stipulated time. India tried to dominate the match but succumbed to the pressure in the penalty shootout.

need to be mentally strong
Reid further said in the post match conference that, as far as training and drill are concerned, we do what other teams do. I’ve been in this game a long time and I know what the other teams are doing. I think our team needs to be mentally strong.

Match went to 9 shots in penalty shootout
Both teams made 9-9 attempts. In this, New Zealand scored 5 goals and India scored 4 goals. The shootout started with a goal by Indian captain Harmanpreet. After that Nick Wood of New Zealand scored an equaliser. Then Rajkumar Pal scored a goal to put India ahead 2-1. Sean Findlay then leveled the score at 2-2. Abhishek missed the goal in the third attempt and Hayden Phillips scored to put the visitors ahead 3-2. Then PR Sreejesh made 3 brilliant saves to save India from defeat. Meanwhile, Shamsher misses to score and Sukhjeet scores. After 5 tries the score was tied at 3-3. Thus the shootout continued.

Wood, Nick and Harmanpreet Singh missed the goal in the sixth attempt. While Sean Findlay and Rajkumar Pal scored in the 7th. Hayden and Sukhjeet could not score in the 8th attempt. Sam Lynn scored in the 9th attempt. While Shamsher missed.

The captain missed the opportunity
Captain Harmanpreet Singh had a chance to win the match in the first round of sudden death on the sixth attempt when Nick Woods of New Zealand missed the chance, but Harman decided to take a direct hit from distance and missed the golden opportunity. To this, Harmanpreet Singh said, it was a good chance and I wanted to score. But this did not happen. This is a team game. Everyone was talking about my poor performance in penalty corners. But, I have also scored in matches. I don’t feel any pressure. Me and the team have to work hard for the future.