The Hindu : Sport : Carvalho exudes confidence

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Sunday, Feb 17, 2008
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Carvalho exudes confidence

Principal Correspondent

NEW DELHI: As the Indian hockey team readies itself for the crucial Olympic qualifying tournament in Chile, chief coach Joaquim Carvalho exuded a guarded confidence of winning the six-nation contest in Santiago from March 1 to 9.

“It certainly wouldn’t be easy. Every team could be a tough opponent on a given day so I am going to take it match by match,” said Carvalho, after landing here from a fortnight-long training-cum-competition tour of Australia.

“We had a very good tour and learnt a lot about different combinations, which should help us in the coming qualifier,” said Carvalho.

India lost its first match against Western Australia, but later bounced back to win remaining five friendly contests, including two against the Doha Asian Games runner-up China.

Bad umpiring

“In the first match it was rank bad umpiring that spoiled our chances”, said Carvalho, but conceded that India did make some mistakes, which were rectified in time for the second match. He said tough matches against Australian club teams and China, against whom India won 3-1 and 4-1, with penalty corner expert V.R. Raghunath showing impressive form, has helped the team consolidate its resources.

The Western Australian side comprises a few regular players of the Australian national team and playing against them was a good exercise, said Carvalho.

“Britain is expected to be the toughest opponent but you never know who is going to create an upset,” he said. Austria, Mexico, host Chile and Russia, which would replace Bangladesh, are the other teams in the fray.

Saying that fitness and penalty corner skills have improved a lot, he rebutted the controversy as regards to Rajpal Singh threatening to put out of Chile qualifier.

“This is a non-controversy and his (Rajpal’s) words have been taken out of context. He is very much in the part of the scheme of things and will be touring Chile with the 18-member team,” he said.

“In Australia, we focused on the core group and did well in penalty corner department with Raghunath scoring four goals in as many matches,” Carvalho said.

About injuries to key players Sardara Singh and Prabhjot Singh, suffered during the Belgium series, Carvalho said both have recovered and are match-fit.

About Prabhjot, Carvalho said that the forward recovered in time and played four matches and even scored a few goals.

The team will assemble in Bangalore for the February 20-24 camp, before flying out to Chile.

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