Indian Women's Hockey

A forum to discuss Indian hockey and the disarray it is in despite the promising new professional PHL series.

Moderator: Moderators

ssp
Member
Member
Posts: 3708
Joined: Sun Feb 13, 2005 8:11 pm

Re: Indian Women's Hockey

Post by ssp »

Our women start their HWL 2 tournament in West Vancover in a couple of hours.

http://fih.ch/events/hockey-world-leagu ... ouver-can/

We are the highest ranked team and should win this, but played poorly in a couple of warm up matches- losing 3-1 to Canada in the last one. Let's hope for a good start against Uruguay today.
sameerph
Moderators
Moderators
Posts: 32795
Joined: Mon Feb 28, 2005 4:26 pm
Antispam: No
Please enter the middle number: 5
Location: MUMBAI
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 11 times

Re: Indian Women's Hockey

Post by sameerph »

We beat Uruguay 4-2 in extra time and Belarus 1-0. Starting with 2 wins but not really convincing ones.
ssp
Member
Member
Posts: 3708
Joined: Sun Feb 13, 2005 8:11 pm

Re: Indian Women's Hockey

Post by ssp »

Yes, not a great start for the new coach. We are going to meet Canada in the semi final. Only the finalists progress to the next stage in the WC qualification process. We lost 3-1 to Canada last week in a warm up game. So we need a big improvement in performance, otherwise we are going to be eliminated.
ssp
Member
Member
Posts: 3708
Joined: Sun Feb 13, 2005 8:11 pm

Re: Indian Women's Hockey

Post by ssp »

After some mediocre results, we finally got a good performance in the semi final. We beat Belarus 4-0 and will play Chile in the final today.
sameerph
Moderators
Moderators
Posts: 32795
Joined: Mon Feb 28, 2005 4:26 pm
Antispam: No
Please enter the middle number: 5
Location: MUMBAI
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 11 times

Re: Indian Women's Hockey

Post by sameerph »

And we also qualify for world group semi finals which is one step closer to qualifying for world league final and 2018 world cup.
ssp
Member
Member
Posts: 3708
Joined: Sun Feb 13, 2005 8:11 pm

Re: Indian Women's Hockey

Post by ssp »

We won the HWL 2 by beating Chile in a penalty shoot out after the teams tied 1-1.
Really pleased to see us take the title, but the results and performances weren't too impressive. We played 4 matches, beating Belarus twice and drew with Uruguay and Chile, getting wins in these 2 matches via a shoot out.
To progress up the rankings, we need to be beating this level of competition more convincingly. I didn't get to see any of the matches, but our PC attempts are not really a threat.
ssp
Member
Member
Posts: 3708
Joined: Sun Feb 13, 2005 8:11 pm

Re: Indian Women's Hockey

Post by ssp »

Interesting article by our new coach:

http://stick2hockey.com/Article/Indian- ... 14130.html

Agree with him regarding the lack of mental and physical strength.
ssp
Member
Member
Posts: 3708
Joined: Sun Feb 13, 2005 8:11 pm

Re: Indian Women's Hockey

Post by ssp »

Our women have started a 5 test series v NZ. It's being streamed live on the Vantage Black Sticks Facebook page.

1st quarter ends with NZ leading 1-0. I know it's just 15 mins so far, but our play is as bad as ever. No more than 3 passes are possible and silly errors all over the pitch means we can't get out of our own half. I will watch till we are 3 goals down :oops:

2-0 at half time as our atrocious play continues. Down to maximum of 2 passes. We have entered the NZ half 2 -3 times and have absolutely ZERO threat as we simply NEVER have the ball. Our basic skills are shockingly bad. Ball speed is so dreadfully slow, which means that NZ can crowd our player in possession every single time and then we simply give them the ball. Can't our coach work out such an obvious defect? PASS IT EARLY AND FAST AND IF CROWDED BY 3 NZ PLAYERS CLOSE TO OUR CIRCLE, DO AN AERIAL!! There it is, I've solved 70% of our problem ;)

The 2 goals resulted from awful errors, but NZ have got into our circle with ease as they have so many options to pass and have speed and skills which can only dream of. It should have been 4 or 5-0 by now. What the hell went on at the weeks long camp? We are still totally cr*p.

3-1 at end of Q3. Slightly better, but that means were now bad compared to atrocious. But NZ have missed 2 open goals, so just luck and poor finishing has kept us down to only 3-1.

4-1 with 5 mins left. Last goal was typical of our horrible skills. Our defender simply gave he ball to a NZ attacker 5m from our goal. Comical. I think it was Sushila. That was the 2nd goal she gave away. Ritu Rani was at fault for the 1st. Dreadful stuff and totally unacceptable from such experienced players.

Somehow, we lost ONLY 4-1. Honestly 8-1 wold not have been unreasonable.So many crappy errors by so many players. We are miles away from being a decent side. I can't see us improving quickly, if this is quality of our players. We just looked dumb against a well organised team.
ssp
Member
Member
Posts: 3708
Joined: Sun Feb 13, 2005 8:11 pm

Re: Indian Women's Hockey

Post by ssp »

Expected and more realistic result today. 8-2 win for NZ. We are really pathetic and it's painful to see such dumb play, so I didn't bother after a few minutes.

Really need to forget about women's hockey, if this is the best we have. :damn:
ssp
Member
Member
Posts: 3708
Joined: Sun Feb 13, 2005 8:11 pm

Re: Indian Women's Hockey

Post by ssp »

Lost only 3-2, which is a huge improvement on yesterday's dreadful result. NZ were again the better team, although not by the embarrassing margins of the previous 2 tests.

We played better, possibly because NZ were experimenting. However, we are still guilty of crazy turnovers in our own 23m zone. NZ just have to press our ball carrier and the ball will be gifted away. Ball speed is still too slow, mainly because our ladies don't seem to have the technique to slap hit it across 30-40m at good speed. So they resort to hopeful hits, which is still better than the painfully slow pushes that we were doing in the first 2 matches.

The other glaring problems are: the lack of speed- especially at the back, awful umpiring bias (couldn't understand why NZ got a PS rather than a PC for their 1st goal), lack of a drag flicker and way too many unforced errors (3rd NZ goal was due to really sloppy play by our last defender).

Still a 3-2 loss is better than the usual hammerings we get. We have to accept we are not good enough and need to unearth quite a few new, stronger, faster players with proper basic skills of trapping and passing.
ssp
Member
Member
Posts: 3708
Joined: Sun Feb 13, 2005 8:11 pm

Re: Indian Women's Hockey

Post by ssp »

Lost all 5 tests. I expected as much, but there was no improvement at all, as 4 of the defeats were 3 goal margins or more. I decided not to watch the she's about half way through the second test.
If 2-3 passes is the most you can manage and speed of passing is this slow and you commit this many unforced errors, then a 4-0 type of loss is the best possible outcome.
So far, this coach looks no better than Hawgood. We struggled to beat Uruguay and Chile in the recent HWL tournament and now a comprehensive thrashing y New Zealand doesn't bode well.
sameerph
Moderators
Moderators
Posts: 32795
Joined: Mon Feb 28, 2005 4:26 pm
Antispam: No
Please enter the middle number: 5
Location: MUMBAI
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 11 times

Re: Indian Women's Hockey

Post by sameerph »

In the European tour for our women, we drew with Belgium Jr. Men 2-2 in a match yesterday. First time seeing a women team play a mens team in hockey or any team sport. :roll:
ssp
Member
Member
Posts: 3708
Joined: Sun Feb 13, 2005 8:11 pm

Re: Indian Women's Hockey

Post by ssp »

Our women have qualified for the WC because South Africa have won their continental championship and so freed up another place in the qualification process.
ssp
Member
Member
Posts: 3708
Joined: Sun Feb 13, 2005 8:11 pm

Re: Indian Women's Hockey

Post by ssp »

Women's Asia Cup started a few days ago. We beat Singapore 10-0 in our first match and today have defeated China 4-1.

We have a pathetic record against China, so such a convincing win is encouraging- even if China have come with an inexperienced team. The matches are not being streamed, so can't comment on the quality of our play, but maybe Harendra has made some useful improvements already. Any decent coach would have done better than Hawgood (or our current men's coach Sjoerd Marijne when he was in charge).
sameerph
Moderators
Moderators
Posts: 32795
Joined: Mon Feb 28, 2005 4:26 pm
Antispam: No
Please enter the middle number: 5
Location: MUMBAI
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 11 times

Re: Indian Women's Hockey

Post by sameerph »

Yes, a win against China is very good indeed. My regard for Harendra as a coach will go up quite a bit if he can turn around this womens team's performances.

We won our last group match 2-0 against Malaysia and top the group. We play Kazakhstan in the QF.
Post Reply