After securing a historic fifth place at the 2026 women’s FIH Hockey World Cup last month, the Indian team now turns its attention to the Asian Games.

China, ranked No. 4 in the world, poses the biggest challenge to India, which is four places below its neighbour. India, however, will fancy its chances against hosts Japan (World No. 11) and Korea (World No. 17).

Head coach Sjoerd Marijne believes India has a realistic chance of winning gold at the Asian Games, which would also secure a direct qualification spot for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

“We drew against China at the World Cup, but we could have won. Both teams had good opportunities, so a draw was a good outcome for both. We played Japan in the Nations Cup (India won 2-1). Korea is the only country we haven’t played for a while,” Marijne said in a media interaction organised by the Sports Authority of India here.

“The main thing is to focus on ourselves. We are 90% about ourselves and 10% about the opponent,” he said.

The Dutchman is comfortable with the high expectations surrounding the women’s national team.

“Everybody expects gold; we are a very good competitor for the gold. But before the gold, there are some other matches we need to win,” he explained.

Asked about the areas India needs to improve, Marijne said: “We scored some penalty corners, but that is something we can improve. Well, it’s not really something to improve because sometimes the opponent defends really well. You want to score more field chances. But if we score a lot of field chances, then people question why we don’t score more penalty corners. If we score a lot of penalty corners, then it’s the other way around. But which country scores many goals in big matches? There aren’t any. They are all close contests.”

Relevance for World Cup classification matches is a matter of perspective. For this Indian women’s team, which suffered a heart-breaking exit in its push for a semifinal berth, a best-ever finish since the inaugural 1974 edition was at stake.

Having picked itself up to go again, this side earned itself a small piece of history by finishing fifth with a 3-1 win over Germany here at the Wagener Stadion on Thursday.

It was a counter-attacking clinic as goals from Ishika and Navneet Kaur in the second half subdued the world no. 5 ranked side.

Starting the tournament ranked ninth, Sjoerd Marijne’s India has exceeded expectations in the Netherlands, pulling off draws against China (ranked 4th), England (7th) and Australia (8th) to add to this result.

It will now head into the Asian Games next month, confident of challenging for the gold.

After a passive start, Germany came alive in the second quarter, making multiple circle entries without threatening India’s goal. But it was India which shaded Germany for attempts on goal, when Navneet’s powerful backhanded drive drew a save from Finja Starck. Salima Tete was alive to a couple of rebounds but Starck kicked them both out.

Germany continued to dominate possession for majority of the game, but the Indian defense, which included tournament debutant, Lalthantluangi, held firm.

Then, against the run of play, India opened the scoring after Neha slipped a through ball for Ishika, who composed herself before lifting the ball past Starck for her first World Cup goal.

India found plenty of joy through Germany’s centre, repeatedly catching its defense out on the counter. After having gone three games without a goal, India suddenly scored three in the space of four minutes.

After going cold from PCs in previous outings, Navneet struck from India’s second short corner before she added another with a cool flick into the roof of the net from another turnover.

Germany persevered in the last stretch with Savita Punia needing to pull off a couple of key saves, but she couldn’t keep out Lynn Krings’ effort with 67 seconds left on the clock.

The result: India 3 (Ishika 42, Navneet Kaur 43-PC, 46) bt Germany 1 ( Lynn Krings 58).

While the Asian Games later this year will be his biggest challenge in the nine months since taking charge in January, Indian women’s hockey coach Sjoerd Marijne is focussed on immediate goals, insisting having a good team culture and developing consistency was more important in the long run.

The Indian team will be travelling for four practice matches in Australia next week followed by the Nations Cup in Auckland before the two big-ticket events — World Cup and Asian Games. “We had a very good tour of Argentina. We will have training and conditioning sessions as well in Australia, who play a very different style.

“There was little time to work on load management before this camp but it was important to put a benchmark for the girls to know what we expect from them. You cannot create better fitness in one or two months; chances of injuries is much higher and we want to avoid that,” Marijne noted in an interaction facilitated by SAI on Friday, revealing that the team had as many as 14 injuries when he took charge.

The Nations Cup will be important for India both to return to the Pro League and prepare for the World Cup and although Marijne was optimistic about India’s chances at the latter, he refused to predict the outcome. “I believe they have the potential but other teams haven’t been sitting still, they are also developing,” he admitted.

Asked about areas of improvement, Marijne preferred to look at the whole picture. “I want to improve everything but for me it’s more about behaviour and showing the same every time on field so that it becomes a habit. A good team culture leads to winning matches.

“The more consistency and continuity we bring in our games, our level goes that much higher. It helps that I know the girls and they know how I work; I am high demanding but there is also time to relax and you need to be able to switch quickly between the two,” he declared.