New Delhi, Feb 28 (IANS) India hockey coach Jose Brasa Sunday asked his boys to keep their feet on the ground and not get carried away by their emphatic 4-1 win over arch rivals Pakistan in their group opener at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium here.
“We have to see this win as just another win from which we got three points. My boys have to keep their feet on ground and celebrate tonight. But from tomorrow we have to think about the next match and move ahead,” said the Spaniard.

The win in front of a packed stadium was a great moment for Brasa since he suffered a heartbreak in Salta (Argentina), where India were thrashed 3-6 by Pakistan in the semi-final of the Champions Challenge.

After Sunday’s match, Brasa was particularly happy about the fact that the Indians kept their emotions under check and played cleverly to outsmart the Pakistanis, who had won the last three encounters.

“Players were calm and not emotional. We were clever in the mid-field, cutting their passes. We had complete control of the game and am happy that we ended on a winning note,” he said.

Asked why he replaced Adria D’Souza, regarded as India’s No.1 goalkeeper, with Sreejesh Raveendran, Brasa said: “It was not a tactical move. We have two good goalkeepers. We will rotate the goalkeepers and Adrian will be back against Australia.”

Skipper Rajpal Singh said that the gameplan was to create more short corners.

“We had an aim to create more penalty corners and give Sandeep Singh more opportunities,” he said.

Pakistan coach Shahid Ali Khan admitted that his team was outplayed by India.

“We committed too many mistakes in the first half. But in the second half we came back well,” he said.

Asked if his team can come back in the meet, he said: “This is not the last match of the tournament. We can surely come back.”