India coach Jose Brasa hailed his
men for "playing with the brain and not emotions" in the 4-1
outplaying of Pakistan in their thrilling hockey World Cup
opening match here but advised them not to get carried away.
|Last Updated: Mar 02, 2010, 03:08 PM IST|Source: Bureau
New Delhi: India coach Jose Brasa hailed his
men for "playing with the brain and not emotions" in the 4-1
outplaying of Pakistan in their thrilling hockey World Cup
opening match here but advised them not to get carried away by
today`s result.
"It was great we won 4-1. The boys played really well and
they deserved to win. They played with brain and not with
emotions," said Brasa, who had before the match advised his
players to cut off emotions against Pakistan.
"But it was just a match and we got three points and
nothing else. We should keep our feet on the ground as we have
a long way to go with very tough matches coming up," said
Brasa at the post-match press conference.
"But no doubt the boys played to the plan. We played
really well in the first half. We played as a team. We had a
lot of control in the first half. Our midfield played well, cutting off the passes by Pakistan. In the second half we lost
some concentration," he added.
He said Sandeep Singh played very well in the match but
also added that he can do better in remaining matches.
"Sandeep played really well but he can do better and I
think he will do better in the coming matches," Brasa said.
Asked why Sreejesh Raveendran manned the Indian goal
instead of Adrian D`Souza, he said, "There is no injury or
anything on Adrian. We have two very good goalkeepers and we
thought Sreejesh would do well today."
Captain Rajpal Singh said his side had a plan to play
attacking game and earned a lot of penalty corners and the
strategy clicked.
"We had a plan to play an attacking game and get lots of
penalty corners, we did that. We played really well in the
first half but Pakistan tried to bounce back in the second
half," he said.
Asked whether India really outplayed Pakistan, he said,
"We played better than them. But now we have some tough
matches coming up and we hope to play even better."
Meanwhile, Pakistan coach Shahid Ali Khan conceded that
India played much better than Pakistan but promised that his
side will bounce back in the tournament.
"Full credit to India, they played really well. They
dominated the first half and our forwardline did not click.
Indian defence marked our forwards really well. We had some
control in the second half. But it was difficult to come back
from 0-2 down after the first half," he said.
"We were also unlucky that we missed two chances as
Sohail Abbas` two drag flicks hit the cross bar. Had his first
penalty corner was converted it might been a different thing.
But it is a long way to go in the tournament and we will
bounce back in the remaining matches," he said.
Shahid said the Indian midfield domination made all the
difference.
"We used to control midfield against them but it was
different today. The Indians controlled the midfield that made
all the difference," he said.
"We planned to build attacks through short passes but it
never really happened. At times our players were just trying
to release the ball from the striking circle and sent down
long passes," Shahid said.
The Pakistan coach was happy with the performance of
drag-flicker Sohail.
"He scored a goal and then missed two chances with the
ball hitting the crossbar twice. What more would I want," he
said.
Pakistan captain Zeshan Ashraf said after the first half
deficit his side could not come back.
"India controlled the first half and we tried to control
the game in the second half. But the first half 0-2 made the difference," he said.
PTI
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