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As the Indian men’s hockey team gear up for a historic semi-final match against Belgium at the Tokyo Olympics 2021, chief coach Graham Reid has sent out a strong message asking the players to keep their emotions in check.
Belgium are the World Champions and have been on a goal scoring spree in the tournament.
Read: India vs Belgium men's hockey semifinal: Preview, prediction, when and where to watch (IST)
India beat Great Britain 3-1 in the quarterfinal. However, the team got two green cards and one yellow card in the match. Graham Reid said the key against Belgium in the semis would be to have all 11 men on the turf at all times. Reid said:
“Looking forward, the things we can learn from last night (Sunday night) is that there is a difference between passion and emotion. Sometimes, we let our emotions take over. We need to keep 11 players on the pitch. The problem is that we played a lot of our game against Great Britain with 10 men on the pitch. We can't do that against Belgium and think that we can be victorious. That will be the big message to the team today when we have a meeting.”
However, the head coach was happy with the way his players have fought in the tournament so far, especially in the quarterfinal against Great Britain. Reid said:
“I am very proud of the players. We fought hard and sometimes that is what you have to do in final situations of a crunch game. You have to fight, bite and scratch. We were very lucky yesterday because Great Britain created more opportunities than us but our PC defense and Sreejesh were magnificent last night. They saved us."
Also read: India vs. Belgium men's hockey statistical analysis: preview, head-to-head & prediction
Indian men's hockey team to bank on previous experiences
On the cusp of creating history, the Indian men's hockey team will be gunning for a victory, riding on their recent experiences against Belgium. India have tasted success against them in the FIH Hockey Pro League in 2020 where they beat the World Champions 2-1 in their second game but lost 2-3 in the first of two double headers in Bhubaneswar.
Prior to that, the Indians had taken on Belgium in Test Matches where they beat them 5-1, 2-1 and 2-0 in 2019. At the Odisha Men's Hockey World Cup in Bhubaneswar in 2018, the Indian team drew them 2-2 in their Pool C encounter and secured a 1-1 draw in the FIH Champions Trophy in Breda, the same year India won the silver medal.
However, skipper Manpreet Singh refused to read deep into statistics in a tournament of the stature of the Olympics. He said:
"As far as Belgium is concerned, obviously they and Australia have been sharing the World No.1 spot for the last 18-24 months. So, in that sense, Belgium will be a very difficult opponent. But we have played them a fair bit in the past and have the experience of doing well against them too. So, we need to focus on the things that we can do against them and make sure that we are much more disciplined in defense and our structure is much better.”
