“It was extremely important for us” – Coach Graham Reid expresses satisfaction with India’s tour of Argentina

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The Indian hockey team toured Argentina earlier this month and coach Graham Reid has expressed satisfaction with India’s performance as well as the organization of the tour. India played Olympic champions Argentina twice during the tour. The first match ended in a 2-2 draw thanks to drag-flicker Harmanpreet Singh‘s brace. In the shoot-offs PR Sreejesh proved to be the hero.

In the second match, India got a comfortable 3-0 win. The goals were scored by Harmanpreet, Lalit Upadhyay and Mandeep Singh. Despite the two wins over Argentina, India slipped in the FIH World Rankings which were released last week. From the fourth spot, they dropped down to fifth although their ranking points increased. This was due to Germany jumping from the sixth spot to the third spot in the rankings.

Graham Reid speaks on India’s tour of Argentina

India’s head coach Graham Reid spoke to PTI about the tour and said, “These matches in Argentina were extremely important for us to assess the level we are at with lesser than 100 days to go for the Tokyo Olympic Games. We also managed to get a few practice sessions in Buenos Aires and we are really grateful to the CAH (Confederación Argentina de Hockey) for their hospitality.”

“After all the necessary protocols after our arrival, we will continue with our training with specific focus on the areas we feel can improve basis our performance in Argentina,” Reid added.

All the focus will now be on the Tokyo Olympic Games for the Indian hockey team which begins on the 23rd of July. After a period of quarantine, the squad which travelled to Argentina will join those who were a part of the core probables but did not travel in Bangalore.

Also Read: India drop to 5th in FIH rankings despite defeating Olympic champions Argentina