Coaches share bandwidth, now for the teams to pull away

It may sound surprising, but the high-profile Oeltmans and the recently appointed and controversial Rach share not only their European backgrounds, but also their work ethics: a love for planning and a desire to keep teams on the upward curve.

Oeltmans first: On the eve of the tie, the soft-spoken Dutch admits that his team fell short in the first leg, that they took the Indians lightly, and says that conceding 11 goals in four matches, on home turf, is ‘‘unacceptable in international hockey’’.

‘‘We have a good attacking line, but that does not win matches alone. According to me, there should not have been more than three-four goals conceded. I know that sounds too defensive, but that is the international level. Even in an attcking style, you need to hold up the defence tightly. And we need to work on that,’’ Oeltmans says. ‘‘We also need to improve our midfield, make it more attacking.’’

For his part, Rach has found more positives for the Indian team from the four matches than lapses. But he also doesn’t mince words in pointing out the shortcomings. ‘‘This team is doing well, they are playing to a plan, and there are no ego hassles. But if you think that’s it, we have done all, it is not so. If you ask me, we are still playing to only about 50-55 per cent of our actual potential.’’

And while everyone may feel that the team exceeded expectations and things can only become better from here, Rach sounds a realistic note of caution: ‘‘This team is playing inconsistently. It is most important to be consistent. But there is plenty of scope for improvement. Even if they do not keep moving up, but manage to stabilise at the level they are nowI will be more than satisfied.’’

And if you thought they just agree on their game, they are on common ground when playing favourites too. Apart from Rach’s choice of Tushar Khandekar and Oeltmans’ pick Tariq Aziz, both agree on Vikram Pillay, Vivek Gupta and Arjun Halappa from India and Akhtar Ali and Mohd Imran from Pakistan as the best from the Pak tour.

Given the common ground, expect fireworks on Monday.