NEW DELHI: “Four weeks are four weeks,” Indian women’s hockey team’s new coach Mathias Ahrens said, referring to the preparation time before the team leaves for the FIH World League Semifinal in Antwerp, Belgium starting June 20.

“Every one knows I took the job at a very late stage and you cannot expect big wonders. On the ground, we work for it (to qualify for Rio Olympics) and will be going to the tournament to achieve it. But to promise that we will qualify after just five weeks of training will be tough,” the 51-year-old German said. “In Rio, there are 11 spots and South Korea has already qualified. We want to get one of the slots. It’s a big task but we will do everything to get this spot,” he added.

India will take on hosts Belgium in the opener in Pool B, which includes New Zealand, Australia and Poland. Japan, the Netherlands, Azerbaijan, South Korea and Italy complete the Pool A lineup. India will need to finish among the top four teams to book a berth for Rio Games.

“We will play only two warm-up matches but we will build on what I saw in New Zealand and from that point I am quite confident. It’s amazing to see how the girls connect on the field. They have the ability to penetrate the opponent’s defence,” Ahrens said.

Ranked 13 in the world, India held world No. 2 Australia (0-0) in the classification match and beat world No. 10 Japan 3-2 to finish seventh in the Hawke’s Bay Cup last month.

Talking about the training, Ahrens said: “While we attack to our strength, we have to organize ourselves a bit better during counter-attacks. The focus has been on scoring. We have put in some alternative strategies in counter-attack.

“We have started working more intensely on penalty corners and have also identified constant change in rules -new long corner and around the ‘D’.”