New women's hock coach Mathias Ahrens eyes top 4 finish in HWL semis

New Delhi: He has just little over a month's time to prepare for the crucial Hockey World Semifinals but Indian women team's new chief coach Mathias Ahrens is eyeing a top-four finish in the event to clinch a historic maiden Olympic ticket for the eves.

Ranked 13th in the world, Indian eves will compete along side top teams like Netherlands (1), Australia (2) and New Zealand (4) among others in the Antwerp leg of Hockey World League (HWL) Semifinal to be held from June 20 to July 5.

India are placed in a tough Pool B along with Australia, New Zealand, hosts Belgium (12) and Poland (23) while Pool A consists of Netherlands, Korea, Japan, Italy and Azerbaijan.

"It is going to be a tough challenge because in our group there are pretty much the best teams in the world. There is Australia and New Zealand who are No. 2 and 4 in the world. But we are eager to give them tough times. May be we can produce a small wonder," Ahrens said during his first interaction with the media at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium here.

"There are 11 places up for grabs. Korea is the only team that has qualified (for 2016 Rio Olympics). Though they are the host, Brazil did not qualify as per FIH's requirements.

"From theory it means from both the Hockey World League Semifinals the top five teams will qualify plus another. And we hope to reach the last four stage which will be an absolutely outstanding performance. If we fail there is a second chance but we will do everything to achieve our target," said the Canadian, who took over the charge on Tuesday.

Ahrens took over the reigns of the team from Australian Neil Hawgood, who resigned from the post last November.

It has only been three days since he took charge, but Ahrens had already identified the areas to work upon.

"It is a fantastic team. The strength is the defence at the moment so our focus will be on the attacking," he said.

"If you look at the number of goals scored in Hastings (during the recent Hawkes' Bay Cup) this is really an issue. And going into the World League Round 3 (Semifinal), we need to get results in the first three games and if we do that we go into the semifinals. But you can get results only if you score."

The Indians are currently training at the hot and humid conditions here for the upcoming tournament to be held in much cooler climes of Belgium, but Ahrens refused to consider weather as an hindrance.

"Conditions will not be an excuse. We practice very early in the morning and late in the evening. So I don't think this is going to be a problem," he said.

The Indian eves are presently without a physical trainer and a doctor but the coach said Hockey India is working towards solving the problems.

"We will have scientific support from the men's side in the tournament. If there is a need we will also find out a doctor very quickly. What is already done is that Matthew Eyles (men's team scientific advisor) has sent us all the plans about what to work on," he signed off.