Having made to eat his words in a string of losses, India's Spanish coach is now respectful of even lower-ranked South Africa
Havingu00a0made to eat his words inu00a0a string of losses, India's Spanish coach is now respectful of even lower-ranked South Africa
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The Indian hockey team is taking nothing for granted ahead of their last Pool B league match against South Africa. The Africans (13) and the Argentines (14) are the only teams below India (12) in the FIH world rankings. However, given the manner in which SA slammed Pakistan (4-1) on Saturday, an Indian win is definitely not a certainty.
India's Spanish coach Jose Brasa, who sounded a tad over-confident before the India-Spain match, is a little more practical this time. "No team in this World Cup can be taken lightly. We just saw what South Africa are capable of doing (against Pakistan) and we cannot afford to take them lightly," Brasa said after India went down 2-3 to England on Saturday.
His words are a pale comparison to what he had said in the run-up to the Indo-Spanish clash. "Spain is in a worse position than us (after losing to Pakistan). It's very simple, you see. India beat Pakistan and Pakistan beat Spain. So, it's only obvious that we should be able to beat Spain," Brasa had said on the eve of the India-Spain match. The World No 3 side ran riot over India finishing with a 5-2 win.
Having won only one of their four outings so far, India are equal on points with South Africa and a win today will keep them in contention for the fifth-sixth place match given the other results on the night are favourable too. Skipper Rajpal Singh said that would be the next best result after bowing out of contention of a semi-final spot.
"At the beginning of the tournament we wanted to finish in thee top four and better still on the podium with a top three. But then, things didn't go as per plan and now the next best thing we can do is finish just outside the medals. A fifth place finish will be a very good result," he said.
The Indians will do well to recall that the last time the two teams met (twice in the 2006 World Cup in Monchengladbach) it was not easy going for them. The league encounter ended 1-1 and India won the 11th-12thu00a0 position play-off tie 1-0.
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