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India women's hockey chief coach Sjoerd Marijne believes his team's impressive performances at the FIH Hockey Women's World Cup 2026, including a hard-fought draw against Paris Olympics silver medallists China, have given the side confidence ahead of the Asian Games, scheduled to take place in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan from September 19 to October 4, 2026.
India's women's team finished fifth at the World Cup, their best result in the tournament since securing a fourth-place finish at the inaugural edition in 1974. Salima Tete's side sealed the milestone with a 3-1 win over World No. 5 Germany in the 5th/6th place classification match in Amstelveen. The Indian team also drew their first-round match against China 2-2. Reflecting on India's 2-2 draw against China, one of the favourites for the Asian Games 2026 title, Coach Marijne said the team had carefully analysed the match while taking confidence from its overall performance. The Dutch coach, however, stressed that the biggest takeaway from the World Cup was the belief the players gained by competing against top teams. "We watched the match back against China, and we did a lot of things well. In the third quarter, they did really well, and that is something we have to look into. But the most important thing is the whole World Cup, not only the match against China, gave us a lot of confidence," said Marijne in a video posted by Hockey India on X. "And yeah, I can tell the girls many times 'you can do it, and we are a good team, but you have to experience yourself.' You have to play a lot of these matches, and then if you play a match like that against China, yeah, it boosts the confidence," he added. Notably, Hockey India announced a cash award of Rs 50 lakh for the Indian Women's Hockey Team in recognition of their historic fifth-place finish. (ANI)
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