Play “give-and-go hockey,” hold onto the puck, and avoid switching sides as much as Germany does, advise former captain Rani Rampal and former coach Sjoerd Marijne.
In order to get to Paris, India will need to conquer Germany, something they haven’t done in nearly ten years. The Germany of rising from the ashes, horizontal playing, all-controlling, ballsichern-ing (rough translation).
Back in February 2015, India was a nonentity in women’s hockey when they last performed that in regular time. They hardly ever defeated elite teams, hardly ever played against them, and they had never gone to the Olympics—they had only ever heard about it.
In their most recent meeting, which took place one month ago on December 19, 2023, Germany prevailed handily, 3-1.In light of this, Savita Punia, one of the two players on the current squad who has experience against Germany (Monika being the other), and her team face a formidable test in the Olympic Qualification semifinals.What makes the Germans so good? They are excellent at ball possession and body-guard the ball, according to Sjoerd Marijne, the Dutch coach who led India to a fourth-place result at the Tokyo Olympics, as he explains to The Indian Express. It is taught starting at the young age and is known as ballsichern.
According to former India captain Rani Rampal, “it’s very difficult to snatch the ball from them when they control it.” She told this newspaper, “And when we do get the possession, we have to work even harder to keep it because they will pounce from all sides.”
Germany is unique, and hence challenging, in that they like to play horizontally rather than vertically, like India does. When they see an opening to attack, they will retain the ball on one flank and control it until they find space in front of them. They will constantly be alert to quickly swap flanks.
Marijne, a performance coach for a football team in Belgium’s top division, says, “They do that really well because of their strong basic skills.”
In the group stage, India’s defense, led by Monika, Udita Duhan, and Nikki Pradhan, has distinguished itself against New Zealand and Italy. However, they will face their hardest test of the competition in Germany.
