Champions Trophy: Belgium Captain Tom Boon Ready for Indian Challenge
Belgium will play Pakistan in their opening Champions Trophy match but Tom Boon feels their quarterfinal clash against hosts India would be their ultimate test.
Belgian hockey captain Tom Boon, the most expensive player in the Hockey India League (HIL), Tuesday said they are looking forward to meeting India in the quarterfinals of the Champions Trophy starting here Dec 6 at the Kalinga Stadium here. (In pics: International hockey stars get ready for Champions Trophy)
"Every game of the tournament is going to be very tough. We will keep going game by game, starting with Pakistan in the first match, performing well against them and then moving forward to the next match. We look forward to meeting India in the quarterfinals in front of their home crowd and play a good game of hockey against them and win," the 24-year-old striker, who will play for Dabang Mumbai in the HIL, said.
Belgium will take on Pakistan Dec 6 before facing reigning World champions Australia (Dec 7) and England (Dec 9).
India have been grouped with Olympic champions Germany, World Cup runners-up the Netherlands and World Cup bronze medallists Argentina.
Commenting on his team's training, Belgium coach Jeroen Delmee said: "We have the youngest team which will be playing in the tournament and we will be aiming at maintaining consistency during the games as it will help us to give a good fight to the rest of the teams. At present it is difficult to tell where we stand at the moment as it has been almost a year since we played any big tournament unlike other teams."