Forget Holland; we know every day won’t be a Sunday

In the second half, we went for the equaliser. It was an ‘‘all or nothing’’ approach any team would have adopted in our position;, even Holland would have done it if one goal down. The game opened up at this point and we ended up letting in two goals.

Looking back, I feel this was the decisive moment. We played our game, stuck to our plans throughout — except for the 10-12 minute period after the 45th minute. When we came out of it, we were down 0-3.

The boys are obviously disappointed but morale is not down. They know they are playing well. Our defence was quite good, with captain Dilip Tirkey in particular playing marvellously and leading from the front. Yet the fact is, we are in a less happy situation than we would have liked.

The first match was always going to be important. I would have wanted a victory against the defending champions and, at a pinch, at least one point in a draw. It hurts to walk away with nothing. Now we have to win all our remaining matches, we can’t afford even a draw. Our next game is against South Africa on Tuesday, August 17. They play a compact, defensive style of hockey. They also advance sharply in their counter-attacks. They have improved extraordinarily in recent times

It is no question that the South Africans are a good team. At the Olympics, you can’t take any team lightly — certainly not one that surprised Argentina yesterday. But everyday is not a Sunday. It’s time for us to take a deep breath and get on with the job.