2006 Azlan Shah tournament - June 18 to 25 2006

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 7:47 pm

...or perhaps I should go out and watch (and cheer) India play more often

! It seems to work like a charm (in every sport except one-day cricket!!).

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 9:38 pm

PKB,

Your presence at the game will help the Indian team to win in Malaysia and we will get to read your first hand reports. A win-win situation for all of us

although you will have to find the time from your busy schedule.

ssp · Post by **ssp** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 9:41 pm

Jay
Yes I should predict doom & gloom every time!

However the wins have come about due to common sense approach ie defending properly & not hitting the ball out of defence stupidly. Things that should have been put right decades ago!! Also man marking is something Indians have avoided like a disease!

Kumar · Post by **Kumar** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 11:20 pm

Even though I want to go wow... We still have a long way to go.. but at least a better performance than last time.. And i hope they go all the way

Post by **jayakris** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 11:51 pm

ssp: Yeah, I hope that change has happened, or is happening - that is, we have stopped blindly whacking the ball to nowhere like we have got used to seeing. These are all things that have looked perfectly coachable and correctable, while we kept on hearing the coaches focus on "missed chances", "forwards didn't click", "the defense broke down" and all that useless stuff. Basics. I sincerely hope Bhaskaran is making all these changes. All it needs is to really talk to the players (they have the ability and talent to do things right) and get them all to buy in to the philosophy. Hopefully the North-South Punjabi-vs-others type divisions are all gone too.

A few wins and some big results would really help Bhaskaran to get things done. Go India! ...

Jay

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 1:13 am

Bhaskaran is quoted in the local papers as saying that we have two games to go (I love that confidence!) and this will help towards World Cup preparations. Bhaskaran of course pointed out to the team before the second match that he had never lost to Malaysia in 20 matches as coach, so the team had got to deliver. Bhaskaran (and Cedric) have been India's most successful coaches, and I hope Bhaskaran doesn't resign at the first failure. He won us the Azlan Shah Cup as coach in 1995, he came perilously close to getting us to the Olympic semifinal in 1996 (as David points out) and now he is beginning to have a positive impact immediately upon taking over the team. More power to him!

jaydeep · Post by **jaydeep** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 4:42 am

Coach Vasudevan Baskaran's interview from PTI report ...

Indian coach praises midfielders

"Our aim today was to win and I am extremely happy that we achieved it quite comfortably," Baskaran said after the match.

"We knew we could break the Koreans if we could block their right wing attacks and also not commit any mistakes inside the circle."

"They have a good drag-flicker and today, I was happy that our defence did not concede even a single penalty corner."

"Yes, it was a near-flawless exhibition by our deep defence," he said.

"The midfielders played extremely well and we played to our plan of controlling the midfield."

"We have to keep it simple and I have been telling this to my forwards."

"They have to time the release of the ball more accurately so that they can surprise the rival defenders."

"I was happy that Tushar, who scored our third goal, kept it simple when he was in position," he said.

Jaydeep.

mugu · Post by **mugu** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 6:35 am

To answer Jay's query:
Yes, off the ball running has improved and with purpose. Someone like Arjun Halappa (always a talented, versatile player) is more than willing to take the load, by working the length of the field. (In the past he used to be inconsistent in this aspect.) Somone like V. S. Vinaya is also doing a fine job in defence and attack. Vikram Pillay as centre half has readily joined the attacks,(though he has the luxury of an additional half, of course)
The defence has performed creditably so far bar the match against Australia, though Dileep Tirkey looks far from his self (physically and defence-wise). Adrian had a few good saves both against Malaysia and Korea and must have re-established himself in the team as its No. 1 goalkeeper.
Bhaskaran's three-back, four-midfielder, three-forward system has worked well so far. But 'so far' will be the keywords.
I think all of us are getting carried away by the success the team has had in KL and have started reading too many things into these victories, all too early.
Even if India wins the title here it will be futile to think of a successful campaign in the World Cup.

Post by **jayakris** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 12:33 pm

Thanks Jaydeep for the article and quotes from Bhaskaran. Yeah, this is exactly what I wanted to see. Some details that shows that the coach was being analytical about it. I particularly like the "keeping it simple" idea he repeated twice. A lesser-discussed point is that keeping it simple is something that comes from confidence. When the team knows they can keep coming back with more, they will not try to get too cute with the shots and too acute in the angles and passes (causing the so-called "missed chances" of the past, most of them not even being half-chances in many cases). "Timing the release of the ball accurately" -- All I can say is, "wow" !!! .. Wasn't that what we were just saying about holding on to the ball properly in our above discussion? Thank you, coach!

mugu -- Thanks for the details. Good to see the improvement on the off-the-ball running. And you are right about not getting carried away too. This is just a beginning. A good beginning though. I personally have much less problem if we simply lose some matches that we should/could have won, as long as we are trying to do some things intelligently. India, the ones who are supposed to KNOW hockey, looking clueless is really very hard for me to take. So far so good, but "so far" is the key word as you say!

Jay

jaydeep · Post by **jaydeep** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 1:10 pm

Jay, I totally agree with ur feeling, becoz I also felt same after I read comments by Baskaran ... Good points by Mugu about not carried away with recent results .. We should wait until we show some consistency in the result and our improved game.

By the way today Pakistan goes out of the tournament after they lost with Argentina ... And after their match Netherlands and Kiwis played timid draw, which many r suggesting a pre-meditated plan to keep out the Pakistan from semifinal spot.

So now in Group B, Kiwis top the group and will play against Aussies ... Otherhand tomorrow we r having tough test against second place Netherlands.

Jaydeep.

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 1:27 pm

I really liked the reference to "timing the release of the ball accurately". As a full- (occasionally half-) back himself, Bhaskaran is acutely aware of this, and imparting the important lesson to his young wards. When hockey sticks were a bit longer (as in Dhyan Chand's day) wizardry with the stick was the key to hockey success.
Today, several of our players remain wizards with the stick, but dribbling is much more difficult with the reduced size of the bent portion of today's Euro-centric hockey sticks. And the artificial turf is meant to make hockey less of a sport based on wizardry, and more a cousin of soccer.
Even by the early-1970s, the likes of Ashok Kumar (Dhyan Chand's son, no less) were being admonished to release the ball sooner -- and then we had the likes of Mohammed Shahid and Dhanraj Pillay (the legatees of the great era of Indian hockey wizardry) being similarly accused on occasion. If we can optimise the (modest) amount of individual wizardry on display while playing the clever, passing game -- and keeping the penalty corners conceded to the opposition to a minimum -- there is no reason why we can't be world class again. I thought I would never be able to say that about our hockey again, but Bhaskaran has rekindled hope by keeping it simple (and also nicely analysing the opposition, as he did with the Koreans).
But the first real test will come when we face Australia, Holland, Germany or Spain in the future: if Bhaskaran is able to replicate his analytical abilities AND use simple rules to counter them too, then Indian hockey will really be back. Beating Korea and Pakistan these days is always the easier part...although a 3-0 drubbing of Korea continues to ring sweetly a couple of days after the event.

mugu · Post by **mugu** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 2:53 pm

PKBasu wrote:I really liked the reference to "timing the release of the ball accurately". As a full- (occasionally half-) back himself, Bhaskaran is...

Bhaskaran has always been a half back and made his mark as a left half. To recall an earlier post by PKB, Harmeek Singh was a left half ; Ajit Pal Singh of course was the greatest centre half in memory; Ashok Kumar made his mark as an inside right (also played at inside left); M. P. Ganesh was outside-right (occasionally played as centre forward also); B. P. Govinda was centre-forward but also once played as outside left for India.
Thirty-odd years and obviously we can't recall all the players and their positions, but PKB surely must have gone on a pleasant trip down memoray lane. I like your optimism, too, PKB.

ssp · Post by **ssp** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 5:22 pm

Had to chuckle after reading todays results!!
Pakistan 0 Argentina 2
NZ 0 Holland 0

The last match was a rather negative match...surprise, surprise!!

Only a few months ago Pakistan 'beat' Malaysia 6-5 after leading 5-1 at one time!! That was an obvious 'fix' to keep India out of the semis of the Commonwealth Games.

Wonder how it feels for Pakistan now!!

I don't like the timings of the final matches but there is no alternative unless 2 pitches are being used. In the Commonwealth Games, it was down to India to control their destiny. They shouldn't have been thrashed 4-1 by Pakistan & needed to beat Malaysia in the 1st game. At the Azlan Shah tournament, Pakistan got a great win against the Dutch & then were lucky to draw with NZ & today they threw away their own chances by losing.

ssp · Post by **ssp** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 5:31 pm

Here are some of the reports on the NZ v. Holland game:

http://in.rediff.com/sports/2006/jun/22hock.htm

http://www.indianhockey.com/phlmodulevi ... hp3?id=212

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 5:34 pm

Mugu, thanks for the corrections! My memory of Sportsweek and radio commentary from 33 years ago clearly failed me on a few of those great names! Surjit, Michael Kindo and Baldev Singh were the full-backs in that 1973 side, and Bhaskaran, Harmeek, Ajitpal (at centre-half unforgettably) were the half-backs.