New Delhi: Ecstatic after guiding India to Olympic men's hockey event, coach Michael Nobbs Sunday said his team would look to play with the same "intensity" during the London Games in July.
"We have done every single thing possible before the tournament and I am happy we delivered. We were confident but still the job needed to be done. We have played all the matches right from beginning to finish with the same intensity and that is what we would look to continue, playing with high intensity," Nobbs told reporters after India thrashed France 8-1 in the final of Olympics qualification tournament.
"We need to start our Olympic preparation now. The boys will take some rest deservingly and then we will implement the whole plan starting from fitness, nutrition and focus on the things which we have done right here. There will be a line of tours and tournaments coming up and we will have to do well.
"It was a very important tournament because we needed to qualify for the Olympics, change our style and show that this team is worthy of admiration and respect," he added.
Nobbs said he does not want to make any promises for the Olympics right now.
"We have a new breed of players, a very happy team, there is no bickering, no politics and the team is playing as a unit. I don't want to set any targets, these are early days. I know if I get five years time, we can win the gold," he said.
Emphasizing on the role of exercise physiologist David John, Nobbs said, "He brings the whole aspect of sports psychology and you have seen the results on the field."
Tushar Khandker too was on cloud nine and said, "I can't express our feeling,we have been waiting for this day for the last four years."
Player of the tournament and India vice-captain Sardara Singh said, "We are united on and off the field and it is showing in our result but still there are some weakness which we have to work on this four five months."
Skipper Bharat Chetri said the result justified all the decisions that were taken ahead of the qualifying tournament.
"We knew the teams in the tournament would not have given us much fight but we didn't want to be overconfident. There were many issues with the selection but our performance shows why some players were chosen and some not.
"We wanted to have the best team, fitness played the main role in the tournament as we played with the same intensity throughout the matches."
Chetri said this win will erase all memories of the 2008 Santiago debacle when India for the first time failed to qualify for the Olympics in Beijing.
"With this win, the 2008 Beijing Olympics loss will be deleted from our lives. We don't want to look behind and from now on it would be a challenge to win an Olympic medal. We will play a four-nation tournament in London against teams such as Germany, England. It is important to play against such top teams to prepare for Olympics," he said.
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