New Delhi: Indian hockey goalkeeper P.R. Sreejesh on Monday said that the team will be in top shape at the Rio Olympics in August but cautioned that the opener against Ireland would be “tough”.
The custodian, who has been an asset to the Indian team, emphasised the importance of sailing through the pool stage to make the final eight. “Our focus will be to take it one match at a time. The key is to win as many matches in the pool stage so that we find ourselves in a good position amongst the top four teams from our group to play in the quarter-final,” Sreejesh said ahead of the selection trials for the Champions Trophy and the six-nation tournament in Valencia.
“Playing Ireland in the first match will be tough as we haven’t played against them since the 2014 Commonwealth Games. However, the way we are preparing, I am positive that we will be in top shape for Rio.”
Talking about the team’s preparations, Sreejesh said the team were focusing on finetuning their greay areas at the ongoing camp at the SAI Centre in Bengaluru.
“Earlier, we would make visible mistakes. Now that that has been rectified, we have been paying a lot of attention to details, how to create situations, making set pieces and also trying out new tactics that we will try in the following tournaments. “We train twice every day and the goalkeepers clock three sessions under the tutelage of Dave Staniforth, who is an Olympian from South Africa,” he added.
