Indian men's team looks to build on Germany show

BHUBANESWAR: The Indian men's hockey team will be eager to continue with their winning momentum as they take on Ireland on Friday. Although they have lost two of their four matches in the FIH Pro League so far, India did exceptionally well against World Champions Germany on Wednesday night and they will take confidence from that.
Speaking after the match Hardik Singh said, "Really happy with the performance against Germany. They are among the best teams in the world and we got a clean sheet also."
As far as coach Craig Fulton is concerned, he is likely to reshuffle the team once more and play the youngsters as he looks to prepare them for the under-21 World Cup to be played in Chennai next year.
"It's more for the under-21 World Cup that we look after the goalkeepers and look after some of the players. They get to train at a higher level and then they go back in and it should help them," Fulton had said after one of the matches.
It's quite a task but some of the youngsters like Arshdeep Singh have already been doing well so far and one hopes to see more of them in the coming days.
India, meanwhile, will have the upper hand in this matchup, having won seven out of the nine encounters between the two teams since 2013 including the group game at the Paris Olympics. Ireland has managed just one win, while one match ended in a draw.
And even as the Indian team focuses on maintaining consistency, Ireland will seek their first victory of the tournament this season. They sadly have struggled so far and are currently at the bottom of the points table with just one point from four games.