"Big adventure to build a team with seven nationalities in a few weeks" - Paul van Ass sums up UP Rudras’ Hockey India League campaign [Exclusive]

Paul van Ass' UP Rudras have had a rollercoaster run in the ongoing Hockey India League having registered emphatic wins interspersed with tentative performances over the last three weeks.

Despite the inconsistency, which has been a distinct feature common to most sides in the Hockey India League, the Rudras find themselves in second place on the points table. They need one win from two matches in hand to make it to the playoffs.

During an exclusive interaction with Sportskeeda, Paul van Ass outlined the challenges involved in building a team comprising players of seven different nationalities in a short period, describing the enterprise as an "adventure."

"Entertaining is not the word, but it's a big adventure to try to build a team with players of seven nationalities in a few weeks time. We had a relatively short camp obviously. The biggest challenge of all was that we had to do it at such short notice," the veteran coach stated.

The Rudras team boast of big names from countries like Great Britain, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, and Belgium alongside a mix of Indian internationals and uncapped players.

Stalwarts like Sam Ward, Floris Wortelboer, Kane Russell, and Lalit Upadhyay rub shoulders with the young and incredibly talented Sudeep Chirmako and Gurjot Singh, making for a vibrant mix while also presenting challenges.

Vas Ass was candid enough to admit that not all the players in the Hockey India League have been exposed to the nuances of off-the-ball play making it difficult to implement tactics.

"The biggest challenge, of course, is to talk about tactics and implement tactics and maybe also for the young players a lot of things they never heard of before. The players who have never been in a national camp are hearing for the first time about playing hockey without a ball and reading the space well and that is all new," he disclosed.

The Rudras have registered five outright wins in their eight matches thus far in the Hockey India League, while also losing three in regulation time. Table toppers Tamil Nadu Dragons have won just four of their eight matches but have picked up points from three drawn games and a couple of bonus points for two shootout wins.

The waxing and waning fortunes of the Rudras in the Hockey India League can be attributed to the huge gap in the level of expertise in the unit, according to the Dutchman.

"Obviously, you can talk about it but you cannot implement tactics at such short notice. So we have to live with the little steps we can take during the games and therefore also you see that the games are very volatile. Sometimes, the level of play goes up and it looks really good but sometimes also it goes down very quickly and looks very bad and, yeah, that is the adventure and also the challenge," the master coach explained.

The 65-year-old who formerly coached the Netherlands men's and women's sides while also coaching the Indian men's team briefly a decade ago, was all praise for Sudeep Chirmako and Gurjot Singh.

"From my perspective, I totally understand that young players like Chirmako and also Gurjot and very talented players. They are very good with the ball but to read the game without the ball, that takes more time. It takes years actually to get to the highest level but it's a good start for them. It's the first time they are confronted with these situations now in the Hockey India League," he delineated.

According to van Ass, language has also been a challenge since not all the Indian players picked in the Hockey India League understand English well enough.

"Language is a big challenge for all of us in the Hockey India League. All the teams have the same challenge, of course. You cannot speed up what you say. Sometimes you have a feeling you were not clear or sometimes you might be clear but they simply didn't understand. So you have to spend even more time there," he said.

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"I do have emotions but it's my job to stay emotionally balanced on the field" - Paul van Ass ahead of Hockey India League playoffs

Hockey - Olympic Games Paris 2024: Day 14 - Source: Getty

In terms of the overall performance of his side in the Hockey India League, Paul van Ass reckons that his team are still "volatile" but good enough to make it to the playoffs with a couple of games in hand.

"We are still volatile, not an established team yet. I do think we need three more points from the coming two matches and then we will be very happy to enter the final four in the Hockey India League. In the semi-final and final, it will be a totally different game again from the perspective of pressure and tension. So that's the fun part," van Ass observed.

Van Ass exudes a sense of calm on the sidelines while not exhibiting too much emotion irrespective of the match situation. While admitting that is indeed the case, he clarified that he does get very tired at the end of the games after suppressing his emotions on the pitch.

"I do have emotions but it's my job to stay relatively balanced. If we're going down or not playing too well, I should not display my negative emotions. And when we're doing well, I need to be a little bit cautious and not be caught up in the euphoria of the moment," he declared.

"So I try to balance that a little bit. I have a clear head and a clear mind to make my decisions based on my ratio. But after the game, most of the time I am very tired, I can tell you that, from controlling my own emotions," he revealed.

Paul Van Ass has without a doubt dealt with seemingly impossible situations on the hockey pitch like he did in the final of the women's event at the Paris Olympics.

In charge of a Netherlands women's side who have dominated world hockey like no team in the recent past, van Ass maintained his composure even as his team trailed a lower-ranked Chinese side by a goal at half-time in the big final.

"One has to stay calm. The girls were not used to playing under that kind of pressure because they were used to being in the lead and scoring a lot of goals So we had to cope with the tension. I said to the players during halftime, we are good enough. We are not on top at the moment, but we are good enough to win this game. So don't change anything," he stated.

"We finally scored in the fourth quarter. It's a sport with people and emotions, it's not a remote-controlled game. But in the end, we were strong enough to get the goal and win the shootout. There is no guarantee that you're going to win even when you are supposed to, or even when you have the better side," said van Ass striking a philosophical note. "Sport gives you no guarantees."

The Rudras are not under a great deal of pressure as of now ahead of Saturday's late-evening Hockey India League game against the Hyderabad Toofans. Paul van Ass refused to give too much away in terms of how his team will approach the game but asserted that the Rudras will play to win.

"We will try to do everything to get a win. Whether it involves changing our style of play, adding something to our style of play or sticking to our style of play, those are choices I have to make. But the big picture is that we will try to do the maximum to win the next match," van Ass said.

"Fortunately, we have another match via which we can also make it to the final four. So it's a big battle, but we will try to do everything possible within reason to win the next match," he added.

The UP Rudras take on Tamil Nadu Dragons in the last of their Hockey India League pool matches on Wednesday, January 29.