Brasa's predictions have come true so far. However, he's not playing soothsayer this time

Brasa not playing soothsayer this time

Brasa's predictions have come true so far. However, he's not playing soothsayer this time

u00a0
If Indian hockey team insiders are to be believed, chief coach Jose Brasa is a psychic in his own right. On the morning of the crucial league match against Pakistan, it is learnt that the Spaniard had predicted a comfortable win. As it turned out, India trounced their arch-rivals by an easy 7-4 score line.

The Indian hockey team beat England 5-4 in tie-breaker in the semi-finals

Then a couple of days later, on the morning of the semi-final against World No 4 and European champions England, Brasa said a couple of things. First, he told defender Prabodh Tirkey to be careful while tackling and not to end up pushing the opponent, as it could prove costly.

Then he told the team that if they can finish the game on level-terms at the end of regulation time, they definitely will emerge as winners via the tie-breaker.

As fate would have it, Tirkey pushed one of the England forwards inside the Indian danger area and Simon Mantell scored off the resultant penalty corner to make it 3-1.u00a0 India then came back to hold the Englishmen 3-3 and then, as predicted, emerged 5-4 victors via the tie-breaker.

Pep talk
Yesterday, Brasa in his pep talk to the team is believed to have said: "You have nothing to lose as the pressure will be on Australia. Don't be overawed by the reputation of their players. At the end of the day, it is what you do on the field that matters and if you do it right, you cannot lose. You have a huge crowd supporting you and there is no need to do anything extra-ordinary. You simply have to ensure that you do not commit any silly mistakes."

Defensive errors have cost India goals against Australia on two occasions - firstly in the FIH World Cup in Feb-March and then in their second league match of the CWG here. India lost both matches 2-5.

So, what is Brasa's prediction before the all-important gold medal match today? "It's impossible to tell right now. He told us that he will make a prediction only after seeing our body language tomorrow morning," said a member of the team, who did not wish to be named.

Meanwhile, the Australian camp will be keen to complete their hat-trick of wins over India. "The Indian crowd is a very knowledgeable one and it's great to be playing here. We enjoyed ourselves at the World Cup and are simply loving every moment here," said Aussie striker Jamie
Dwyer (31).

"Exciting news! Mid-day is now on WhatsApp Channels