Junior Indian Hockey - men and women

[ssp]

We have started off with a hard fought 3-2 win over Japan in the 2017 Sultan Johor Cup.
Matches are being streamed live via these links:
http://www.sultanjohorcup.com.my/index. ... ve-matches

[ssp]

We are 1-1 against Malaysia at half time in our 2nd match
Malaysia's passing and decision making is so much better than ours. As is usual with all Indian teams, PCs are gifted away by crazy tackles or poor trapping.
Australia seem to be the strongest team so far following a 19-0 win over USA and 4-0 over Japan

[ssp]

We sneaked a 2-1 win in a really frantic match littered with numerous turn overs- mainly from us. We tackled like usual Indian teams and conceded 8-9 PCs and won only 3. We also picked up 2 yellows and a few green cards. Our passing was always hurried or aimless and we indulged in crazy dribbles or held on the ball too long. Just needed someone to calm things down and just think for a moment about passing accurately and on the floor so that the receiving player was not under pressure and that way gain some control of the match. We rarely had the ball for more than 20 seconds!

Malaysia seemed better organised and their moves were usually well constructed. They were just unlucky and wasted several good chances, whilst we managed to convert 2 from far fewer opportunities.

I can't see us getting much out the Australia game if we play such disjointed hockey. GB too, will deny us space and will keep the ball for long periods. Early days for Jude Felix, but this team is not playing like Harendra's U21s from 2014-2016.

[sameerph]

Today we beat USA 22-0. I know USA are the weakest team in the competition. But, still 22-0 is not sort of the scoreline we hear from our team even against the weakest of teams.

Great Britain upset Australia 4-2 today. So, I guess this tournament will be a 3 way race between us, Australia and GB. We play Australia tomorrow.

[ssp]

Great Britain upset Australia 4-2 today. So, I guess this tournament will be a 3 way race between us, Australia and GB. We play Australia tomorrow.

GB and Australia are physically too strong and too organised for Asian teams. I can't see either of them dropping points against Japan and Malaysia respectively, so we need to beat one of them (GB/Australia) to reach the final.

I am not hopeful against either team because we seem too careless with our passes (mostly raised for no reason) and decision making (always too hurried). GB & Australia will be much more methodical and safer when in possession. The umpiring will also be a big factor- expect several cards and dubious PCs against us.

Today's 22-0 win was a joke. USA are far too weak to be playing at this level. If I remember correctly, Batra & HI pressurised the Malaysians to keep Pakistan out of this tournament and USA was the replacement. Despite the scoreline, we must have missed another 8-10 clear cut chances.

[ssp]

Results have gone exactly as I expected. We have lost to both Australia (4-3) & GB (2-1). Even the umpiring nonsense was as expected.
We don't help ourselves by tackling so recklessly.
Japan couldn't get a result against GB and our only hope for a place in the finals is Malaysia upsetting Australia, which is not going to happen as in Q4 it's 2-1 to Australia.

[ssp]

We finished 3rd with a convincing 4-0 win over Malaysia.

Our guys have nice kills (as do the Malaysians) but we seem to do some crazy things when just a bit of composure is required. I'm talking about rash tackles which gift away PCs, dribbling needlessly near our circle, holding on to the ball when an easy pass is on and raising the ball on simple passes.

The umpiring was dreadful...so no surprise there either.

The HI website shows most of our players are 17-18 yrs old. Lets hope these stats are genuine. It's always painful to lose close matches, but we can take heart from these results given that it's our first outing with this squad and coach. With more experience, we should improve and start beating the likes of GB & Australia.

There are 2-3 really good prospects in this team. I particularly liked Dilpreet and Maninder.

Not so sure about our coach, Jude Felix. This is the guy who effectively ended the international career of Gurbaj Singh. I'm sure he wasn't the only one who wanted Gurbaj banished, but his report was used by HI as evidence of Gurbaj's 'groupism'. I was critical of Harendra, but he won me over when his U21 teams performed so well over a 2 year period.

[ssp]

The Asian qualifier for the Youth Olympics has started in Thailand. Here's the link to our matches:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ6cghn8dPY

Vivek and Maninder played in last year's Sultan Of Johor Cup and Vivek played in the CWG. This is for U18s

The matches today were easy, but Pakistan could only draw 3-3 with Chinese Taipei! I expect tougher matches against Korea and Malaysia for the boys. China, Korea and Japan will be the main competition for our ladies.

[ssp]

Our boys made hard work of beating Malaysia in the final. We led 4-2 with just 2-3 mins remaining, but we can all guess what happened?...equaliser was conceded with 2-3 seconds remaining. Thankfully, we won the shoot out, but it was (yet another) game that we dominated and somehow managed to screw up. Lots of cards as well.

Our girls were beaten 4-1 by China in the final, so rather disappointing end for them.

[ssp]

Our U21s have started off well in the 2018 Sultan of Johor Cup. Yesterday, we beat Malaysia 2-1 and today we thrashed NZ 7-1. Completely dominated today's game with some slick play. Japan have also stared well with 2-1 wins over GB and Australia. Matches are being streamed on YouTube or via

We have brought a pretty young team with several of our key players involved in the senior team of or the Youth Olympics (which stars later today: https://www.olympicchannel.com/en/youth ... /schedule/).

[ssp]

We are doing very well in the men's hockey 5s a the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires. Huge wins over Bangladesh, Austria and Kenya so far. The women scraped past Austria 4-2 and Uruguay 2-1.

Meanwhile our U21s are top of the table at the SOJC. Today we got a scrappy 1-0 win over Japan. Our guys have excellent skills but are still doing the crazy Indian stuff of holding on to the ball needlessly, making the wrong choices when defending a narrow lead (hurried aerials, Hollywood passes, giving away fouls etc). Our captain, Mandeep Mor is a prime example of trying to be too clever every single time. He likes to go for a dribble or make long passes or simply whacking into the D. Japan are a pretty good team, but we should have won by 3 or more goals. Oh..and the Malaysian umpire was pathetic. gave us some really poor decisions.

Don't know what our coaches are doing because I saw the same poor decision making in every quarter.

Our remaining pool games are against Australia and GB. I think one more point should get us into the final. We will need to be much better in keeping the ball against both of these teams.

[ssp]

We have just beaten Australia 5-4 at the SOJC.

Usual nonsense at the end when we nearly squandered a 5-2 lead with lunacy near our D. PC after PC conceded by crass tackles and pathetic decision making. Any free hit from us resulted in a silly aerial (Mandeep Mor was an expert at gifting the ball away) or hurried lifted passes, when a bit of composure and just passing the ball safely to kill off the game was all that was required. We even had a man advantage for about 10 mins. So a match that we dominated for 45 mins ends up so close. Nothing ever changes with our teams.

Our coach here is Jude Felix (the chap who killed off Gurbaj's career) and I'm not convinced he is anywhere near Harendra's ability because our team has so much potential but just basic stuff seems beyond us.

Anyway, we are in the final and I hope Japan meet us there, because I'm always nervous about our chances against Australia or GB.

[jaydeep]

Our boys' and girls' hockey 5s teams r in the final at a the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires ... Both teams defeated favorite's Argentina and China in the semis.
The boy's' team defeated host Argentina 3-1 and facing Malaysia for the Gold.
The girls' team defeated China 3-0 and facing host Argentina for the Gold.

[sameerph]

We have just beaten Australia 5-4 at the SOJC.

Usual nonsense at the end when we nearly squandered a 5-2 lead with lunacy near our D. PC after PC conceded by crass tackles and pathetic decision making. Any free hit from us resulted in a silly aerial (Mandeep Mor was an expert at gifting the ball away) or hurried lifted passes, when a bit of composure and just passing the ball safely to kill off the game was all that was required. We even had a man advantage for about 10 mins. So a match that we dominated for 45 mins ends up so close. Nothing ever changes with our teams.

Our coach here is Jude Felix (the chap who killed off Gurbaj's career) and I'm not convinced he is anywhere near Harendra's ability because our team has so much potential but just basic stuff seems beyond us.

Anyway, we are in the final and I hope Japan meet us there, because I'm always nervous about our chances against Australia or GB.

Our team lost in the final of Sultan Johor cup against Great Britain 2-3. Great Britain always seems to trouble us in senior and junior hockey.

[ssp]

This year's edition of the Sultan Johor Cup began today (with live stream via this link: http://www.sultanjohorcup.com.my/index. ... ve-matches)

We beat Malaysia 4-2 after going 2-0 down in the first quarter. Some exciting talent but lack of midfield structure and unforced errors will be punished by GB & Australia. Tackling was pretty good but some really crazy dribbling at the back.

A decent coach could make this team a real contender for the next JWC, but HI will continue to play silly games on that front. Harendra has applied for the job but at a fair salary and HI don't want to accept that. I bet they'll go for an Aussie and happily pay him lots of $$$s.