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Indian womens team will starts it's campaign in the olympic qualifiers today.

This is the schedule for the event -

April 19: USA vs Belgium, France vs Netherlands Antilles, India vs Russia.
April 20: Belgium vs France, India vs Netherlands Antilles, Russia vs USA.
April 21: Rest Day.
April 22: USA vs France, India vs Belgium, Netherlands Antilles vs Russia.
April 23: Rest Day.
April 24: Belgium vs Netherlands Antilles, India vs USA, France vs Russia.
April 25: Rest Day.
April 26: Netherlands Antilles vs USA, India vs France, Russia vs Belgium.
April 27: Final.


This is a older article from TOI -

Hockey team feels the heat


Surprising that the camp was held in the exteme heat in Lukhnow when the qualifiers are going be held at a venue where conditions will be exactly the opposite.

India leads Russia 1-0 .. Near half time.

"** Goal: Rani DEVI **
8th minute - A move down the left rips open the RUS defence, eliminating the goalkeeper which allows Rani DEVI to pass into an open goal.
It is a great start for India, who are looking very much the better team. A large number of India supporters are in the crowd and making themselves heard, currently outsinging the Russia supporters "

How many Indians are there in Azerbaijan to be louder than the home team supporters?? .. Wow!

Jay

Russia ties it up at 1-1 inthe 37th minute.

** Goal: Anna GUTENEVA **
37' An incredible start to the second half. The corner is a mess, but the ball looks to have been forced over the line by GUTENEVA to level the scores. This nicely sets up what could be a great second half 

40' The goal has added to what was already a stunning game of hockey. IND are playing some super stuff at times, but they are not alone. RUS seem to be brimming with confidence, and are capable of scoring more in this game

Come on Chek de Ladies!

Jay

Our ladies have gone ahead 2-1 ..

43' Umpires Michelle JOUBERT (RSA) & Carolina de la FUENTE (ARG) are in complete control of this game. There has not been a single disputed decision as far as I can remember. 

46' The game is becoming a midfield battle - both teams are struggling to inside their respective circles.... wait

** Goal: Surinder KAUR **
47' I wrote too soon.... Surinder KAUR brilliantly deflects the ball into the goal to give IND a 2-1 lead

50' IND are still going forward, and RUS are looking stunned by the goal. It is still a cracking game, but you just get the feeling that IND have got control of the match now

Jay

... And our ladies win it 3-1 !!

** Goal: Pritam SIWACH **
68' Pritam SIWACH wins the game for IND, dribbling around the RUS keeper before passing into the open goal. Brilliantly taken, and the victory is secured for India

70' FULL TIME - RUS 1-3 IND: A thrilling game, and India deserved to win this match. However, the performance of Russia suggests that they have the potential to cause some upsets in this match.

Well, our ladies did not conceed a last minute goal or anything, but rather scored one at the end to help ourselves in the goal tally!

Saturday 19th results in the first pool games:
#11 USA d. #24 BEL 3:2 (2:1)
#20 AHO d. #18 FRA 2:0 (0:0)
#13 IND d. #21 RUS 3:1 (1:0)

Jay

Thanks Jay for updates ... Excellent start for Indian women in this entertaining quality match ... USA struggled in their first match.

Jaydeep.

Good start by India. All the matches could be very close.
Hope we can keep up to today's performance throughout the tournament.

Here's a report on today's game:

http://in.sports.yahoo.com/080419/20/6suxh.html

Looks like we missed a lot of chances and PCs were up to usual Indian standards (hahaha...although I find the women's game more to my liking because PCs are not as crucial).

At least Kaushik is willing to accommodate Ric Charlesworth!

I just got up, and could not follow the commentary online.  Bad news ---  AHO d. IND 2-1

Netherlands Antilles has had two good matches, beating FRA yesterday and IND today.  Dark horses?  Or did India screw this up? .. Now we have to win every thing else and hope for help .. Tough.

Rani Devo scored again for us.  Here is the commentary - http://comtwo.lx2.sportcentric.com/file ... php?id=217

Jay

Oh NO.
Really bad news. Why the hell can't we string some good results together.
We could be in trouble now. USA beat Russia 7-0!
I'm not looking forward to the rest of the week We'll need to win all the remaining pool matches just to ensure getting into the final. What are the chances of any Indian team doing that??

Here's a quote from the match:

"Never a moment we thought we could win this match," said their elated captain Ernestina Schreuder.

"This was the best match since I took over the team in 2005," said Bas Swildens, the coach of the winning team.

"We once beat Spain in a friendly. This is totally a different game. Indian statistics must be terrible. They entered the circle more than 20-25 times against a couple of times by us. This victory is definitely a boost," he added.

Dreadful stuff! We will be stuffed by USA if continue to so pathetic in front of goal

Very dissappointing result!  However, it seems that the Netherlands Antilles team is full of Dutch players who may be pretty good.  Not sure how you qualify to represent a country but I wonder if many of these players have just moved base so that they can play in the olympics.  In a related note, apparently the Azerbaijan team is full of Koreans who have moved (and married Azerbaijanis) for similar reasons.

This was shocking result for the pre-tournament favourites ... Moreover in second half Indian women had chances as for some time Netherlands Antilles played with 9 players as Ernestina Schreuder and Jolanda Clemens recieved yellow cards.

Jaydeep.

Disappointing loss

Are all our coaches stupid?

http://www.fieldhockey.com/index.php?op ... 5&Itemid=1

They are world champions in coming up with excuses but what the hell were they doing in Lucknow? What was the point of that useless camp? It was so hot when Kaushik and the IWHF knew what the weather was going to be like in Kazan!! Why didn't they organise some meaningful international games? Hopeless idiots-just like the men's team's preparations!

I honestly can't see us getting to the Olympics if we lose to lower ranked teams like this. We are not good enough.

After leading 2-1 at half-time, IND are now trailing BEL 2-3 with only 7 min to go  seems like another loss and effectively a knock-out punch is round the corner.

IND lose 2-3. With this, i think they are effectively knocked out of a finals berth.  A really sad day indeed, for the first time after some 80 years, we will have no representation in Olympics Hockey.

Pathetic result.
We are totally inept.
Let's have another STUPID 80 day camp in the hottest place in India for the next tournament. Pick the same bunch of players and then freeze whenever a white face player (doesn't matter which country) comes onto the pitch and play like novices.

Expect things to go downhill from here.

Kaushik seems to be just the typical crap Indian coach that we churn out by hundreds. Totally clueless. Watch any Indian team and laugh at the complete lack of basic common sense. Free hits are taken in a hurry with the receiving player not even facing the right way. 16m free hits are a joke. A wild whack straight onto the opponents stick and an invitation to attack us results.

Fitness has nothing to do with such stupidity. What is shocking is that we CONTINUE to play the same way.

The best part is the brilliant excuses that the coach/ players come up with.