Coach Carvalho counts on the positives

With two difficult matches behind them and three points in their kitty, the Indian team enjoyed a two-day break ahead of their final Group A game against Argentina on Wednesday in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup .

With two difficult matches behind them and three points in their kitty, the Indian team enjoyed a two-day break ahead of their final Group A game against Argentina on Wednesday in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup .

Chief coach Joaquim Carvalho was pleased as he looked back on the narrow 1-0 defeat to Australia and the 5-4 win against China over the weekend. The former World Cup and Olympic half-back, known for his crunching tackles, Carvalho has imbibed coaching techniques from his 8220;guru8221; Balkishen Singh. Caught in a contemplative mood, Carvalho said, 8220;To be honest, I was a bit concerned that our young team was taking on Australia

in the first game.

8220;The fact that a majority of our players were inexperienced at this level did play on my mind, but I remembered Balkishen8217;s words of 8216;hit hard and hit over heads8217; and it was the strategy we adopted against the Aussies,8221; Carvalho said.

On the up-and-down game against China, who scored three of the four goals through indirect penalty corner conversions, Carvalho said: 8220;Our biggest problem was that Bimal Lakra suffered an injury and him being one of the penalty corner defenders on the line, it made a lot of difference. He could barely move and once I pulled him out, we had to re-organise ourselves. Couple of our defenders, especially Harpal Singh, had an off-day against China and it resulted in so many penalty corners nine,8221; he recalled.

India did not have the best of preparations coming into this tournament. A 1-0 loss followed by a 1-1 draw with a young Malaysian team at Kuala Lumpur last week led to speculation that the Indian team was not the best to leave the shores. Taking an overview of the Indian team, Carvalho admitted that there was an urgent need for a specialist centre-half, someone who can control and direct the moves.

8220;After all, the Indian style of play has always revolved around the centre-half. Having said that, we have a quality centre-half in the making in Sardara Singh who has the requisite attributes.

8220;He has a good vision, is strong on basics and good physique, but he needs to work on ball release that is so crucial,8221; Carvalho opined.

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The coach had much the same to say about full-back

R Raghunath, who is fast developing into a classy drag-flicker. Raghunath had a baptism by fire last year when he made the big leap from juniors to the men8217;s World Cup in Germany following Sandeep Singh8217;s injury. The transition was far too sudden and dramatic for the young defender from Bangalore, but Carvalho felt that Raghunath was on the right track. The other aspect that he stressed on was on-field communication among the players.