It’s a massive challenge: Paul Goudoin
“Junior World cup is a massive challenge for me, for my team, says Paul Gaudoin, the Australian coach, before leaving India to take up the most important of his coaching assignments.
Australia had just defeated New Zealand twice at Perth, with high scores, last leg of preparation for the of player-turned coach, for whom India is home away home.
“Delhi is a massive challenge, there are many strong teams up there, and that’s why we prepared hard for the tournament, and this twin-test series helped us a lot”, Paul said.
“Playing against quality teams are important, and this series proved useful for our team”, he explained.
Former Australian captain Paul played for Australia almost a decade, though had to miss out 2004 Olympics due to injury. He won bronze at the Olympics twice.
Paul took over the reins a couple of years ago, first series assignment being the first Sultan of Johor Cup.
“Since I took over the team changed constantly, fitness improved, and we had good exposure too”.
Speaking on the preparation for the ‘massive’ challenge, he said since Australia being a big country, its not possible to assemble the required team for long, and given the situation the team had prepared well.
Australia is considered as the top contender for the title, but Paul strikes a cautious note when comes the question of predicting medals for his team.
“It’s a strong tournament out there, yes, we have prepared well, though we could not get all the players together for long due to geographic reasons. However, the tournament will be a test for us”.
“We have first win quarterfinal and semifinal before thinking of medals. We will put our best foot forward”, said the former midfielder.
“This will be a very difficult tournament to win”, asserts the Aussie.
India, Spain, Argentina, are good, so also many European powerhouses.
Indians are a very good side, they played some great tournament in the run up, we will watch them with keen interest” says Paul
At the same time, he conceded that his team had not worked out any practice matches in Delhi, where they reach on first Dec.