At the outset, I must admit that Austria surprised us, and though we went on to win 7-3, I must thank our opponents for waking up our team from a slumber. The early goal that Austria scored against us in the Olympic qualifying tournament on Sunday night did shake us up.
It was the kind of a match we needed, as we now focus on our next game against Mexico on Tuesday, and then Great Britain on Thursday before we round off our league campaign on Saturday, when we face hosts Chile.
Of course, on Sunday, there will be classification matches, but that is a long way off.
I thought we started off against Austria on a tentative note. I admit that our midfield play was rather shaky and we just did not cut off the long balls that the Austrians used to launch their breakaway moves. And the Austrian goal, in the second minute, was a direct result of our failure to intercept a long ball.
The early setback upset our game-plan and rhythm. Our deep defence made some silly mistakes and that brought pressure on us. But, then, I never lost faith in our team, for I knew we had the attack to beat the Austrians. It was just a question of putting our game together after conceding an early goal.
As the match progressed, I thought it was best to reorganise the midfield so that the Austrian moves could be checked at the centerline rather than allow them to develop into threatening attacks. I strengthened the midfield, but it took a while to get things moving and by that time we were into half-time, sharing four goals.
The first 15 minutes of the second-half was a decisive phase and during half-time I instructed the midfielders not to play so closely with the forwards, but focus on cutting off Austrian moves. The strategy worked wonders and once our forwards got going, there was no stopping them.
It was a wake-up call for our team. After the fairly easy outing against the Russians on Saturday, perhaps, we needed a tough match and the Austrians, who played typical European style hockey, gave us a good run in the first-half.
For the first time in this tournament, our deep defence came under pressure and I was able to pinpoint the areas of weakness in this vital department.
Our defenders were too slow and I thought the marking could have been better. As the result, Austria were able to score twice, the first from open play and then a penalty-corner conversion.
Our plan for the second-half was to score early and take control. Once Ignace Tirkey gave us a 3-2 advantage with the 42nd minute strike, we seized the initiative. Goals in quick succession meant that we did not give the Austrians a chance to recover as we kept them under pressure.
As for the third goal we conceded with 10 minutes left, I will mark it down to our players relaxing after going 7-2 up. I concede that we should remain focused and be at the top of our game right through the 70 minutes and this is something we are working on.
More than the seven goals we scored, I was happy that our bench strength made its presence felt. Players like Bharat Chhikara, Ignace Tirkey and Vikram Kanth not only scored goals, but also contributed in other ways. I had to pull out Bimal Lakra, who was rather off-colour, but both Ignace and Vikram were quite outstanding. Chhikara too scored a fine goal with a reverse hit.
As I have been mentioning all along, I am happy that we have players with all-round ability. Of course, we do need specialists, but only in key areas, like penalty-corners or scoring.
But, otherwise, in modern hockey the emphasis is on players with multi-task ability. In this context, I am happy that our team has a bunch of all-rounders whom I can rotate in various positions.
From now on, I feel our team can only get better and there were definite signs in the match against Austria. I look forward to the remainder of the competition with optimism.
Former Olympian Joaquim Carvalho is chief coach of the Indian hockey team
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