Indian hockey team coach Harendra Singh talks team’s third place finish in Asian Games, World Cup and Olympic qualification. Reubyn Coutinho is all ears. Exerpts:

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India conceded late against Malaysia again (in semis in Asian Games), do you feel that there is a need to concentrate more on not conceding a goal at the last moment?

It’s a good question. See the disappointment of that loss is still there. But such things will not work on a high level, intensity and pressure. Players will need to show character and personality on the pitch and will need to play as per team requirement. This loss has become history and I can guarantee you that whatever we lacked in that match we will work on it and rectify it in the upcoming matches.

After the loss, what did the seniors like (PR) Sreejesh and Sardar (Singh) tell the junior players?

First of all, whether it be Sreejesh, or Sardar or Vivek, our team does not have anything like senior or junior. One time you take the India colour and have the capacity to represent the country, then senior and junior doesn’t exist. We sat as a team till late, it was tough to get the disappointment out, because the most important thing at that moment was the bronze medal match, because it has been in history of India hockey that after a loss we do not play well. I had 48 hours to get the players ready, something is better than nothing. Had we lost and finished fourth that would have been worse for Indian hockey.

What is your schedule till the World Cup?

We start the camp on the 16th, and then we go for the Asian Champions Trophy in Muscat on the 18th till the 28th October and then it’s back to Bhuvneshwar and from there we start the World Cup journey. I’m looking for a maximum of 24-26 players for the camp. The problems that we had in the Asian Games are minor and can be polished and rectified within the 2 weeks.

The Indians committed a lot of mistakes when the teams started pressing in. It was witnessed during CWG and Asian Games. Are you looking at getting a psychologicist on board to deal with the pressure?

This entire world is always looking for the psychologies. For any team the biggest psychologist is the coach and oneself. If everyone doesn’t first motivate themselves, no one else can motivate them. As a coach I also have to be the biggest critic. If you only look at the positive side, then I’m putting something the team has to improve on under the carpet. So, first I have too look at myself, then look at every player and step by step remove the deficiency which I can say is only one or two percent

Two players were green carded towards the end of the game vs Pakistan. How much did this affect the team?

We spoke about emotion control, I don’t mind taking a green or yellow card if the ball goes into the goal, but to take it in the centre of the pitch is uncommon. We are all professionals now. Hockey is a professional sport and players need to act and react as professionals and not amateur. Every ball is not something where you can tackle and make a forward pass, emotion control comes into play here again. You get many chances to do so, but look for one which doesn’t see the team get penalised.

What do you make of the Olympic Qualification process, now it’s a bit complicated?

If you go through the process, we have to maintain our ranking, once you maintain your ranking you are going to play against 13th -14th ranked team, which is better than playing the 7th or 8th team, so first maintaining ranking is key and it is one of the challenges we have in the World Cup. We have to get the best result and I can say you can look at the challenge and put the team such a way we can maintain this number and climb 1 or 2 steps further up. So, if we maintain then we are automatically number 1 to qualify for Olympics as I presume the 3 best team from the European, the Latin American and the Oceania Championships the three best teams will qualify and 4th is pro league and 5th is India.