India aims for big prize of direct WC qualification, aims to put everything during Asia Cup: Coach Fulton

Rajgir (Bihar) [India], August 28 : Ahead of the team's Asia Cup campaign start, Indian men's hockey coach reflected on the challenges faced during a challenging FIH Pro League and recent tour of Australia and said that the team eyes the big prize, a direct qualification to the next year's Hockey World Cup by "puttting everything into the tournament".

India will kickstart its Asia Cup hockey campaign against China on August 29. The final will be played on September 7. The Men in Blue are a prolific presence in the tournament, having won it thrice in 2003, 2007 and 2017 and finishing as runners-up five times. They are featured in Pool A alongside Japan, China and Kazakhstan.

Speaking in a pre-tournament presser, Fulton said, "We are in a good place. We have had a good preparation back inside Australia, and now we are here at the tournament, so we're looking forward to it."

Team India had a disappointing end to their FIH Pro League campaign this year in June, finishing in eighth spot out of nine teams, winning just six out of 16 matches and losing seven matches in a row, ultimately finishing with 10 losses. During this terrible run, they let their opponents score 23 goals and could score just 14 goals.

After this, some training followed and in August, India had a four-match tour to Australia, which they lost 1-3.

Further speaking, Fulton said that the results did not go their way in the Pro League and while they are playing well, they have to be better with their finishing in the fourth quarter.

"We are playing well. We have to be better in the fourth quarter. We created chances but were not efficient with penalty corners and field goals. We held a training camp, emphasising tactics. It was great. We had some great meetings about putting the balls in the D better, which would create more scoring chances and ultimately help us be more effective on the scoreboard. So, that has been the real focus, and obviously, in defending, we always have to have a level of defence on the team to play a certain way and to stay competitive, because if we score goals but also concede them, then we do not always win games. That was part of the problem in the Pro League, so we put a strong emphasis on both of those," he added.

Fulton termed the Asia Cup as the "flagship event of the year".

"We want to put everything into this tournament. The prize is big, the direct qualification to the WC, we are after that. A different kind of tournament, with Super 4s this time around (top two teams from both Pools making it to Super 4s stage where teams will play thrice), something not done before. We take it one game at a time," he added.

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