Asian champions trophy

[sameerph]

Rupinder Pal scored 6 goals from PC. That must be sort of record for some time for India. I know though that his was one of the weak Japanese team which we played.

[PKBasu]

The final score in the India-Japan match was 10-2.

Malaysia beat Pakistan 4-2, so Pakistan seems to be in big trouble. However, Pakistan did manage to beat Korea 1-0.

India play Korea today, with the latter desperately needing a win to stay in contention.

[ssp]

Just started watching our game v Korea and within 5 mins we concede! Always happens. In fact we almost conceded within 30 secs of me watching the game because of a crazy pass across our goal by Jasjit. So far, we seem to mess up every time we enter either D. Usual stuff- lots of mis traps by Ramandeep and Akashdeep. Korea have had 3 really clear cut chances and have put away one of them. Lots of gaps in our defence.

Let's see if we can turn this around.

1-0 down at half time. Our forwards are pants. None of them can stop the ball today! Also guaranteed to get dispossessed or pass inaccurately. All of them are so frustrating

Lalit equalizes. Now, will we keep calm...or concede within 2-3 mins?

1-1 at the end of Q3. A few chances at both ends. Our defence looks poor today. Our final pass is really awful. Akashdeep is being played in midfield and he has been woeful. Unable to pass cleanly or even when under no pressure. Uthappa too, wasted a great chance. All he had to do was pass across the goal to Ramandeep, but managed to hit the ball out! Usual culprits holding us back.

Hmm. Korea just finding it too easy to enter our D. A PC conceded so easily and a green card. Another PC results. Can we keep this out? Yes, thankfully.

4 mins left. Heading towards a draw. Haven't played well at all today. Too many silly errors all over the pitch. Also noticed the ability of our players to lose any 50/50 challenges. Ramandeep, Akashdeep, Uthappa and Jasjit looked poor (probably a even below their usual standard). Sardar's passing was way below his standards too. So many lifted and inaccurate passes.

Just hit the post in the last seconds.

Well, at least it's not a defeat, but Oltmans can't be happy with so many circle entries and so little to show for it. However, we gave away a few too many PCs and didn't win enough at the other end. The latter was because our forwards would simply lose possession or fail to stop the ball when in a great position.

[arjun2761]

Glad we didn't lose but this performance does seem quite hard to explain.

Depending on how well our Jr WC side does, it may make sense to get several youngsters into the first team now as it seems many of the more seasoned (and often non-performing) ones have hit a ceiling and would likely not be useful over the next 4 year Olympic cycle.

[ssp]

Yes Arjun, we need some fresh blood to replace 4-5 of the current squad. Unfortunately, I have zero faith in our selectors seeing sense. The lack of basic skills of Jasjit, Uthappa, Ramandeep and Akashdeep have been obvious for 2-3 years, yet we STILL have these guys in the team. The inconsistency of some of the other players is baffling.

Korea have probably spent a fraction of the money we have and still they can compete and possibly could have beaten us with the chances they got. We had more possession and circle penetrations and shots on goal, but somehow, we always looked like messing up.

Let's hope we get a decent showing against Pakistan tomorrow. Who knows what we will get from our team?

[ssp]

1-0 up against Pakistan at half time. Scrappy game with silly mistakes by both sides in almost every move. Our goal was due to dreadful goalkeeping mistake. Lack of composure from our guys is laughable. Quite a few circle entries and absolutely ZERO outcome.
Have to mention Akashdeep, Ramandeep and Uthappa for making basic errors every single time. Birendra looks shaky too. We need to improve quite a lot in the 2nd half.

1-1 within a minute! No marking at all. Guess who could have done better? Yes, my friend Akashdeep. Typical lazy C**P play from him.

2-1 to Pakistan. Well deserved, because we are playing like idiots. So many players who are incredibly poor. Can't tackle, mark, pass let alone beat a player.

Every single player on our side has been woeful...ok, I'd excuse Sreejesh.

2 quick goals towards the end of Q3 give us the win. Not that impressive, as 2 of our goals were gifts.

We simply have to drop Akashdeep and Uthappa. Both have shown no progress over the last 3+ years. That's long enough.

[PKBasu]

Good to see us beat Pakistan despite a scrappy, poor performance. We should be beating the likes of Pakistan and Korea with ease now if we are to retain our world ranking.

[jaydeep]

Really disappointing display by us on the field ... Again we were struggling on the final touch, in defense and marking ... We managed to win, as in the third quarter we responded scoring back to back goals in a minute ... Rupinder scored through penalty corner hitting powerful shot top left corner of the goal ... After that Ramdeep deflected on excellent pass from Talwinder Singh to gave lead.

At 4th Asian Champions Trophy 2016, Kuantan, Malaysia

India bt Pakistan 3-2 (1-0)
Goal Scorers - Pradeep Mor (IND) 22' Rupinderpal Singh (IND) 43' PC, Ramandeep Singh (IND) 44' and Mhmd. Rizwan Sr. (PAK) 31', Mumd. Irfan Jr. (PAK) 39'

[ssp]

Our defence looks very shaky again. Marking is slack and the tackling is not good, as we always give away a foul. Birendra still seems below full fitness. We lack creativity in midfield and we all know our forwards are our weakest link. Our best hope is some of the U21s stepping up and replacing some of the dross. This tournament was a great opportunity to try out some new players, but we only brought in Affan, Lalit and Pardeep Mor. Affan has done OK and I really hope he has some great games here as he may force the selectors to drop Akashdeep!!

We may have done better than Pakistan on the stats but the top 5 teams in the world would have surely created more than 1 PC. So many times we got into the D and then our forwards would take crazy shots or simply lose possession.

[jayakris]

At least we won... I guess that's all we can say. Jay

[sameerph]

Yes, happy about that. But, that is because Pakistan were more error-prone than us. They are now ranked 13th in the world and no longer the team they were even a decade ago.We should be beating them more comfortably.

[arjun2761]

Yes, these are good results by historical standards but our play here seems to confirm that we are a 6-10 level team rather than a threat to break into the top 5.

[ssp]

We seem to have regressed from Rio (& certainly from CT in London). We look vulnerable at the back and I think it's because our midfielders are not doing the hard work or lack discipline. Sardar has been our best player for nearly a decade. He is still great at passing but he seems to stroll around and doesn't bother closing down (the commentators have remarked on this). That's why Oltmans played him in attack in Rio. When we have Manpreet or Devendar Walmiki or even Chinglensana, they will close down spaces so we look more compact and there are no easy passes into our D. Here we have Uthappa and Akashdeep!! 2 players who have trouble stopping the ball or passing 5m and have zero defensive awareness. So with Sardar as well, our midfield is way too weak defensively. Pakistan's equaliser was brilliantly taken by Rizwan snr, but his marker (Akashdeep) was several metres away watching the ball. Playing Akashdeep guy in attack is bad enough, but in midfield he is a much bigger liability.

On the positive side (apart from the scoreline), we controlled the play pretty well in Q4.

We have been spending lots of money on coaches, back up staff, tours etc, but then hamper ourselves by making crazy selections. Repeatedly. At the top level, a team can NOT carry a single sub standard player. We usually have at least 3 on the pitch in every match.

[ssp]

9-0 win over China. That's more like it. Akashdeep, Jasjit, Affan got 2 each and Lalit, Nikkin and Rupinder Pal got the others. Much better performance. Still need more outcomes from circle entries. We just lose the ball without a shot or a PC.
Now we play Malaysia to decide who finishes top. I hope we play with high intensity and go for a win. We have taken things easy in final pool matches and lost badly and that seems to carry on to the semi or final.

[PKBasu]

If we are to consistently compete among the top 6 in the world, we should be beating all Asian competition comfortably. The performance in this tournament has been disappointing from that perspective -- especially the draw with Korea and narrow win over Pakistan.