With little more than a month to prepare for a vital Hockey World league tournament in Belgium, Indian women's hockey team coach Mathias Ahrens took reign of the team on Tuesday.
The tournament involving all big teams: Netherlands (ranked 1), Australia (2) and New Zealand (4), will easily prove to be a challenge for 13th ranked India with an eye at qualifying for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Placed in Pool B with Australia, New Zealand, Belgium and Poland, India will have a tough ask right from the start but something the team needs to capitalise on said Ahrens on Thursday.
"We have tough teams in our group but we are eager to give them tough times. May be we can produce a small wonder," he said.
"There are 11 places up for grabs (for Olympics). Korea is the only team that has qualified. 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," he added.
Present during the Hawke's Bay Cup in New Zealand where India finished seventh, Ahrens has identified the attack as the aspect the team needs to work upon while commending the defence. "It is a fantastic team. The strength is the defence at the moment so our focus will be on the attacking.
"If you look at the number of goals scored in Hastings 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," said the Canadian.
Things haven't started very well for him though with few members of the squad missing due to injuries. Add to that, the team is without a physical trainer and a doctor but the 51-year-old clarified that Hockey India president Dr. Narinder Batra is working towards providing the same.