Head coach Graham Reid’s team talk on the eve of India’s Asian Champions Trophy semi-final against Japan will be the converse of the one he delivered after playing Australia in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. India beat Japan 6-0 on Sunday and play them again on Tuesday. More than four months ago, Reid’s countrymen trounced India 7-1. His views then are a mirror image of what he will portray this evening at the team meeting.

“We may have won by six goals but if you look at the numbers, it was 3-2 or 4-2. Not 6-0,” he said at a virtual media conference on Monday, also attended by captain Manpreet Singh.

Reid had urged his demoralized players in Tokyo to look at their own numbers and discern it certainly wasn’t a defeat as large as it was.

It worked. India eventually finished with the bronze, breaking an Olympic medal drought that lasted 41 years.

This time around, Reid believes the theme of this discussion would help guard against complacency.

“Teams and players generally get transfixed or bamboozled by results and scorelines but you’ve got to look at the numbers behind a match,” he said.

Reid flashed back to Australia’s experience against Germany (presumably the 2007 Champions Trophy).

“We won 5-0 in the league but ended up losing 0-1 in the final,” he said. “Japan are a very good team and if you look back at the match, we gave them too many opportunities.”

Reid is spot on. Kenta Tanaka and Seren Tanaka had chances to score. Then, there was an exemplary display from young goalkeeper Suraj Karkera who denied the Japanese at crucial moments.

Both goalkeepers Karkera and Krishan Pathak gave good accounts of themselves in the absence of the rested PR Sreejesh and it drew Reid reluctantly into commenting on individuals in the team. He did so, but reservedly.

“It was very difficult to give players opportunities in the run-up to the Olympics. We’ve been able to do so in this tournament and performances like these lift the team as a group,” the Australian said.

“Six-nil is a really good score, especially because we kept a clean sheet.

“I am happy with the young players here but we can’t rest on our laurels. We still need to work on our defence, the man-man marking and the transition to zonal marking needs to get better,” Reid struck a note of caution.

“We can’t take our foot off the pedal and let up on scoreboard pressure. It gives the opponent oxygen.

“We gave Japan far too many opportunities and our PC defence needs to improve,” Reid said.

Manpreet Singh, concurred. “Japan is a team that gives 100 percent till the end. When we play them again we must make use of our opportunities and force as many penalty corners as we can,” the Indian captain said.

Manpreet thumbed up the performance of youngsters inducted into the team. “They’ve made most of their chance and they could make selection difficult for the coach,” he said.

Reid explained the absence in the team of a player or two who shone at the recent Junior World Cup.

“They played a big tournament so needed a rest. Besides, we thought that players in the 21-25 age group should be kept going. Many of them lose their way because they’re forgotten after a Junior World Cup. We don’t want that to happen.

“The best example is that of Mandeep Mor and when I look back, Glenn Turner and Simon Orchard are two players who came from that age group and went on to shine for Australia,” Reid said.

India started the campaign in Dhaka in an indifferent manner. They frittered away a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 with South Korea but moved from strength to strength after that, beating Bangladesh 9-0, Pakistan 3-1 and Japan 6-0.

Reflecting on the opener against South Korea, Manpreet said: “The Koreans are a good team and are a mixture of youth and experience led by Jang Jonghyun.

“But we’ve learned a lot from that match and improved since then,” he added.

As for Pakistan, who India could meet again in the final should they win against South Korea, Manpreet said: “When we play Pakistan, we want to do the same as with any other team irrespective of what is said off the field.

“We go into the match with them to play within our structure.”

And structure and training are key points, according to Reid.

“When I arrived, the daily training environment wasn’t appreciated too much in India but that has changed.

“Daily training has helped us get better and better,” he said.

“It’s probably what we have and the other Asian teams don’t,” he added.

“They probably are struggling with getting good players, funding and exposure at tournaments but if they manage to do so, they could move up the ladder,” Reid said.