K. ARUMUGAM

India do battle against Spain on Thursday in the 2023 FIH MJWC.  The Spanish are regulars at global events at any level and Head Coach CR Kumar knows his boys are in for a stern test at the Bukit Jalal stadium in Kuala Lumpur.  The cool and composed coach, however, is confident that his U-21 lads are game for a fight.

Looking ahead to a crucial match-up with Spain, Kumar knows the challenge would be to cope with their hard, physical game that is characteristic of European sides.

“We have to deal with it,” he said. “Part of the plan is to avoid mistakes – conceding soft turnovers and double turnovers,” the coach elaborated.

Spain coach Oriol Puig Torras, 32, on the other hand that his team recently played against India, and their young team could not do well against.

“We lost badly, I think 2-6. Since then, we have been on a learning curve”, said Oriol Puig Torras.

Though the Spaniards caved into India then in the Dusseldorf 4-National championship opener in August this year, they went on to beat England for bronze while India lost 1-6 to Germany in the final.

It seems the Spaniards are improving, as they beat Canada with a big score yesterday in the opening day of the Jr World Cup.

At Dusseldorf, a brace of goals each from Chirmako and Rohit made things easy for the rout. Both are here too, with nippy Araijeet Hundal to complement them.

Kumar dwelt on European’s fitness and other favourable conditions while emphasizing our own grit to beat them.

Spain coach (r) Oriol Puig Torras and captain  Andreas Rafi

“We’re happy that we collected full three points from our opening match against South Korea,” he said on the eve of the Spain encounter.

“However, we should have been more clinical in both circles and should have forced more penalty corners rather than the two we did and conceded fewer than six,” he said.

“True, South Korea played a defensive game for starters, mindful of the heavy defeat (9-1) we handed them in the Junior Asia Cup.

“We also couldn’t use certain tactics that pay rich dividends like the long overhead because with the packed defence they presented, it would have failed,” Kumar said.

“But we’re looking at the positives and among those was Araijeet’s (Hundal) hat-trick.”

Asked on why Araijeet was not fielded at the Sultan Johor Cup last month, the coach said,  “We have a group of 40 players and so decided to rest a few key players keeping in mind the possibility of injuries and the need to not tax them too much ahead of the big event.”

The teams target here? First things first — Kumar wants to secure a quarterfinal spot. “Beyond that, reflecting on our World Ranking of No.3, one can guess what our ultimate target is,” he said.

As to the Indian shortcomings, Kumar cited experience owing to infrequent match practice. “Unlike European teams who don’t have to travel far given the proximity of rivals, Asian teams must make do with occasional test series made possible only by expensive long-distance travel and the rare tournament like the Sultan of Johor Cup,” he said.

“In two years we should have played 50 internationals but that’s way short of European teams who can even travel by road to play matches. To that extent, we’re on the backfoot,” Kumar said.

Against Spain, Kumar knows his team must hit the turf running. The Spanish looked good in a 7-0 rout of Canada and a positive result will go a long way to making the quarterfinals and topping the pool.