Asian Games Hockey

[ssp]

5-0 win over Thailand isn't great. One positive thing is that Rani Rampal played after sitting out previous couple of games. We'll need her in the semi final.

[sameerph]

Ok, good second half which will keep their confidence high going into the SF.

Our semi final opponents not yet decided. Japan is topping the other group. Malaysia and China are fighting it out for second spot. Malaysia is at 7 points and China at 4 but Malaysia plays their final match against Japan today while China plays Hong Kong. So, if as expected Japan beats Malaysia and China beats Hongkong it will come down to goal difference. Malaysia is at +19 now and China at +7. So, China will need a big 10 goal or so win against Hongkong to get it up.

In other scenario, if Malaysia beats Japan it will top the group and we will face Japan.

I prefer Malaysia over Japan or China. We will know by tonight when those 2 matches will get done;

Malayasia lost to Japan 1-3 and China win 15-0 over Hong Kong.

So, it is China who we are going to meet in the SF tomorrow. Japan vs. Korea in the other SF.

[ssp]

Yesss. 1-0 win over China in the semis. Excellent stuff. We dominated but just couldn't score. Now, one more strong showing against Japan needed

Match being shown here (with 30-40 min delay): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OALS9TQWfVA

[jaydeep]

Really good performance, great showing girls ... Now, we are one win away from securing ticket for Tokyo 2020.

[PKBasu]

Chak de India! Great job by the women in making the final. Reminds me of the win in the Asian Champions trophy final against China that I witnessed with my family a couple of years ago in Singapore.

[ssp]

It was an impressive performance...apart from the finishing. We dominated the game and it was good to see the composure after taking the lead. Usually our teams panic and end up conceding in the last few minutes. Lots of hard running and the press form our forwards created a lot of turnovers and basic errors from the Chinese.
Japan are a tough team and it will be a close match, but main thing is not to concede an early goal. If we can create enough PCs, Gurjit could be our main threat.

[Sin Hombre]

So Korea lost to Japan and failed to even reach the semifinals. Wow!

[ssp]

We are playing some dumb hockey against Malaysia. The defenders are utterly crap today and our PCs are useless. I can see Malaysia scoring off the many PCs we will gift away.

Really crazy unforced errors from Amit, Rupinder Pal and Manpreet have resulted in 3 PCs conceded in Q1. 0-0

Decided not to watch as that usually helps our team

[suresh]

India vs Malaysia Halftime score: 0-0.

[sameerph]

Goalless at half time. We started well but after that that our level dropped and Malaysia are looking dangerous on counter attack. Towards the end of the first half, we started attacking better again. They have to keep it up.

[sameerph]

Harmanpreet scores of a PC at the start of second half. 1-0 up.

[Sin Hombre]

2-1; would have expected this to be more comfortable.

[sameerph]

Crazy defending. We got 2 yellow cards and are down to 9 men for 5 mins.

[Sin Hombre]

2-2 in the last minute.





Can this team ever learn?

[sameerph]

Yes, now it is a lottery. Anything can happen In shootout.