New Delhi, Jan 5 (IANS) Belgium aim to improve their world ranking at the upcoming Hockey World League Final to be played at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium here Jan 10-18.
“This tournament is like mini World Cup where the top eight teams are competing to win the inaugural title of the World League. We rank fifth in the world but we aim to come out a better team after this tournament. We have our best team for the league with just four new players. The boys have to live up to the expectation that they have built over the years,” said Belgium coach March Lammers.
The team held a practice session here Sunday, after which skipper John Dohmen said any team can win the tournament.
“The top eight teams will compete against each other hence no one should be considered as underdogs. Any team can win on any given day and hence we aim to play good hockey and win our matches and keep going ahead. We want to take each match as it comes and will play as per strategy on that given day.”
Belgium meet Australia in the opening match of the tournament Friday.