Hockey @ Commonwealth Game

[sameerph]

And we lose 0-4. 2 goals in each half, 3 of them from penalty corners. We had few chances here and there which we could have converted but it could have only reduced the margin.Australia were too good.

[PKBasu]

Australia are head and shoulders ahead of the competition in world hockey, but I'm glad we are beginning to show signs of returning at least to the top-6, which should be our next aim -- before going for top-4 by the time of the next Olympics. We need to start by winning Asian Games gold!

[ssp]

Well beaten but we competed reasonably well. Australia are too good in all positions. Today we weren't at our best, possibly because of fitness issues. The other difference from the pool match was that we made too many unforced errors. Sort of reverted to previous mode in trapping, tackling and passing. We really need to get more consistent on this aspect.

Our tackling was punished very harshly and 2 of the PCs could have avoided with some composure. Overall the umpiring was against us in all the matches. Today the video referral was a farce. Govers was clearly less than 5m away from our free hit on top of the D, yet incredibly a PC was denied!! Ragunath could be heard asking the umpire just to be fair because he gifted the PC (that led to the 3rd Aussie goal) for a similar offence. Firstly, the idiot umpire didn't spot this foul and then the referral was rejected. Yet our offences (real and imagined) are always, always spotted, even when there are 6-8 players blocking the view!! We won't be 'allowed' to win the most important matches with this kind of rubbish.

Still a definite improvement in our play. Walsh and his coaching staff and our players have to be congratulated for this. I'd replace Chinglensana and Danish for the Asian games. In the long term, Ragunath has also got to go. He gives away too many PCs.

[akmohanty]

yes, i saw that referral bit and was surprised they rejected it. the player was clearly within 5m and even the commentators, who were quite sure about it, were shocked it wasn't given.

this would not be relevant in the Asian Games. let's hope we continue our improvements and clinch the Gold!

[kujo]

Congrats to the entire hockey team and especially the new coach on this silver medal winning performance in CWG.

By the looks of it, the team and coach are doing more things correctly and better, than before. To come from 0-2 behind and win a crucial semifinal game is really amazing!!

[PKBasu]

The best aspect of this is that New Zealand (#6) are ranked well above India (#9) in the FIH world rankings, so the come-from-behind win in the SF was all the more praise-worthy. We won the silver ahead of #5-ranked England too. The crushing 5-2 win over #12 South Africa was another nice result.