EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NEW DELHI

TROOPING in for the World Cup logo unveiling ceremony on Sunday, the Indian hockey team were expected to arrive clammed-up and tense after a week of controversy.

But while no one was allowed to speak to the media initially, the federation finally relented and chief coach Jose Brasa insisted all was well within the team and there were no differences, adding that he was targetting nothing short of the title in Argentina. “The aim is to win. We will win all the matches. I am happy with the team. It’s a big group and each and every player is fighting for his position. Players have worked hard and are a bit tired but they will have a camp in Madrid to recover,” Brasa said.

The Indian team will be in Madrid for a week-long training-cum-competition stop before heading to Salta for the Champions Challenge from December 6 to 13. The winner of the tournament has an entry to next year’s Champions Trophy.

Brasa also said that he enjoyed a good rapport with all the players. “There is no problem between me and the players. There is no fight at all, those talks are all lies. Nothing like that is there,” he said.

Brasa also said that there were a lot of new things tried out during the camp in Pune and the players had taken well to the experiments.

“We have tried new ways of attack, defence, passing the ball, communicating with each other on the field.”

However, while he expressed confidence and satisfaction with the skills and hard work of the players, Brasa did say that the players needed to work on their mental strength. Admitting that conceding goals towards the end of a match was a problem, he said the players needed to toughen up. “We have to work on the mental aspect of the game. We are handling the physical aspect with long stamina training. But there is need to work a little more on the mental aspect,” he said.

`Rajpal best man to lead’ ASKED about the captaincy issue, Brasa reiterated that Rajpal Singh was the best person to lead the team after Sandeep Singh’s back injury.
“We have full confidence in Rajpal. We had tried out many captains during the Canada tour and all the coaches felt that Rajpal was the best. But we will again try out at least two more this time,” Brasa said.

New skipper Rajpal was also confident of a good show in Argentina. “We are going to play a major tournament after a long time. The opposition will be surprised with our new style of play,” he said, adding that there was no controversy.

“There is no problem. I don’t know how all this talk has come about.”