Commonwealth Games 2014: Indian Men's Hockey Coach Terry Walsh Targets Semifinal Berth

The Indian men's hockey team chief coach Terry Walsh says their first target is to make the semifinals at the Commonwealth Games while Neil Hawgood, the person entrusted with the task of getting the best out of the women's outfit, also expresses confidence of a decent finish. ('India Need to Overcome Challenges Away from Home')

"The first objective is to accumulate sufficient points to go into the semi-final crossovers. Where our rhythm and skill execution has been of very good quality, our penalty corner conversion will be a key component in the whole process," Walsh said. (India Need to Play Better in Glasgow: Walsh)

"Rupinder Pal Singh is overcoming a minimal adductor tweak and V R Raghunath has been executing very efficiently. Of course the key is match situation conversions."

Speaking on the side's preparations, Walsh further said, "The team has now familiarised with the Games village and playing venue. The training level in the past one week has been encouraging and the group is focussed at building towards the performance stage. (Want to Win Commonwealth Gold: Sardar Singh)

"We have a reshape strike group and that continues to grow in understanding and quality."

Meanwhile, having settled down at the Games village, Hawgood said the spirit among the girls is high.

"The team is feeling quite confident and is in good spirits at the moment, with training and village life going along quite smoothly. We are now narrowing our focus to the finer points that will prove to be crucial in our matches and making sure that we are all working together towards our goal.

"Our penalty corner work is progressing. With some good results in Malaysia we are confident that we have enough ideas about the style and execution of our penalty corners and if executed well, then we should see positive results," Hawgood said.

The women's team will take on Canada on Thursday, with their male counterparts clashing with Wales the following day.