India today spanked Canada 4-0 in their opening Pool C match to start their campaign on a resounding note.
"We are happy with our performance in the first match. All compliments to the boys for holding on to their nerves. They played as per plan. We know if we keep going like this, we will achieve our goal," Harendra said at the post-match press conference.
"I will give full credit to the team. Every team comes here to win but look at the margin, possession of ball, circle penetrations, shots on goal, penalty corners we were by far the superior side. We also did not concede a single penalty corner that shows us that we were superior structure wise," he said.
"In any World Cup, it is important to win earn three points and to achieve that by such a margin is encouraging."
"I feel scoring four goals and attacking so much proves that the boys have fulfilled my expectation. But they have more potential and we show that in future," he added.
"But yes, there is always need for improvement and we will analyse on our today's game and try to keep on improving."
Senior team's chief coach Roelant Oltmans, who is a part of the coaching side here, too agreed with Harendra.
"In every tournament, the first game is difficult. You have to find your rhythm. It took the boys little while to find the rhythm properly. Mandeep's goal late in the first half gave us confidence. In the second half, we decided to put more pressure. The boys showed fantastic attacking skills, scoring 4 goals in a match is not a small thing," the Dutchman said.
Fog was always thought to be an issue going into the late evening match, but Oltmans said they never think about external factors before any match.
"We focus on the job we have to do we don't focus on things that is not in our hands. If it happens like that then we have to resort to plan B, that is always there in our minds. We started in time and during the game, there were no problems or concerns," he concluded.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
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