Bhubaneswar: The Indian women’s team will be making their debut at the Kalinga Stadium here November 1 and 2 when they face USA in the Hockey Olympic Qualifiers. And for head coach Sjoerd Marijne focusing on his own team is most essential than the opponent.
The eves are here in the city for a week now and Marijne announced the same squad for the upcoming event that played in their tour of Great Britain. Deep Grace Ekka, Lilima Minz and Namita Toppo are the three Odia girls in the 18-member squad.
“I can’t be too much busy with USA, how they are thinking and what will they do, how fit are they because I then lose track of our own. It’s important to know how they play, their style but we will not change our style,” the Dutch coach said while announcing the names.
“We like attacking hockey I believe very much that you have to use the strong point from the culture you are in. For us it’s about ticking all the boxes. What can do we do, what can we control to be as good as we can.”
For the record, India are ranked ninth in the world while USA are four places further down. And for captain Rani Rampal ranking doesn’t play any big role on the match day. She instead wants to use the crowd support into a positive energy to win the match.
“Whatever is our game plan, we have to play according to that. Whatever we do matters the most than what USA are doing,” said Rani.
“This is the first time we are going to play at the Kalinga Stadium and we have seen the amount of crowd support during the men’s matches. We will transform that into a positive energy for ourselves and hope to give our best on the field,” added the captain.
The squad: Savita, Rajani Etimarpu, Deep Grace Ekka, Gurjit Kaur, Reena Khokhar, Salima Tete, Sushila Chanu Pukhrambam, Nikki Pradhan, Monika, Neha Goyal, Lilima Minz, Namita Toppo, Rani (C), Vandana Katariya, Navneet Kaur, Lalremsiami, Navjot Kaur and Sharmila Devi.