Brasa ready for his first assignment with national team

Though disappointed with the Sports Authority of India (SAI) for delaying the equipments that he requires for training, India's chief hockey coach Jose Brasa has enough reasons to leave the Indian shores on a positive note for his first tour with the team.

After spending five weeks with the team in Pune's Balewadi Sports Complex, Brasa called his wards as 'gems' and spelt out his targets for the next couple of months.

"Five weeks is not a long time to bring changes in the team. The players are very talented. They are gems and can certainly make a top team," Brasa tols reporters here Thursday.

The Spaniard said he is working on a lot of areas so that the players can play to their potential.

"They have to improve their basic skills. Defence is one area where we need a lot of improvement. We are conceding last minute goals, which remains a weak point of the team and we have to improve on that aspect," he said.

"We have to accept that Indian team is ranked 12th in the world and so there is a lot of work to do. But I am very positive with the way the team has responded to all the challenges. I told them that we will face many problems in the way, but we have to find a solution and move ahead."

The team is leaving for the European tour Thursday night where they wil play 12 Tests against England, Holland, Spain and Belgium.

"They are all top teams and above us in the world rankings. Ideally I would have liked to play against teams which are of equal strength. But this programme was already scheduled. So we are taking this as a learning trip. We might not achieve big results but we will learn. We will try out things that we practiced during the training," Brasa said.

"We need at least two years to produce results. And our biggest test will be the World Cup at home next year. That will be a big moment for us."

"I have always maintained that we have to adopt a modern approach in hockey. Europe is the best example of that. The players have to work on speed and strength. Every player has to be a good defender, midfielder and forward. They have to learn all the skills," he added.

Brasa though was not too happy with SAI for not proving the technical equipments that he needs for training.

"SAI is slow in taking decisions. The equipments are important part of training and I have still not got them. I have no complaints with Hockey India though. They are providing all support. Even without the lack of technology we we will try our best. I thank the players. who are equally determined to work hard no matter how much difficulty they face."

The coach also said that goalkeeper Baljit Singh's absence will be a big loss.

"It is a very big loss for the team. But I told the players that these are the moments when we have to show our fighting spirit and we can come closer as a team."

Skipper Sandeep Singh said the players are very happy with Brasa's coaching.

"He has great technical knohow and we learnt a lot in the training," Sandeep said.

Last updated on Jul 23^rd, 2009 at 21:45 pm IST--IANS