Sultan Azlan Shah tournament

[ssp]

Australia beat us 4-2 today. We had a dreadful Q3 with 2 green cards, a yellow card and 3 goals conceded. Other quarters were well contested during which India created more chances. Sumit missed a sitter in the opening minutes and Varun hit the post. We got some harsh decisions, especially from the NZ umpire (what a surprise!!). So nothing new there.

We did reasonably well to deny easy openings for the Aussies (apart from Q3) and showed some lovely skills and often moved the ball around very nicely. The Aussies were just too quick and powerful, with several of their players able to burst pass 2-3 of our guys through the midfield, The stats were pretty even except 4-2 in PCs for Australia.

Unfortunately, we had a few players who lost possession or contributed little. Uthappa got us 1 PC but thereafter lost the ball most of the time. Talwinder may have stopped the ball cleanly a couple of times (!!). Simranjeet looks tentative and too error prone and Nilakanta was dispossessed or brushed aside too easily several times- although he had a much better Q4. I'm not too convinced by Mandeep Mor yet.

On the positive side, we have some really skilful players. Sumit Kumar looks a real threat in attack and must be given a good run. Nilam Xess also looks very good. Of the others, both keepers, Varun, Dipsan, Surender and Sumit (midfielder) put in good performances. Ramandeep played in a slightly deeper role and had an excellent match today. I have been critical of his recent showings, but he looked a different player. Sardar had a decent match but looks slow and the opposition just seem to run past him too easily.

[arjun2761]

So #6 Indian have lost to the #1 (Australia) and #2 (Argentina) ranked teams in the world and tied with #7 England, so reasonable results so far despite the 2 losses and no wins.

However, we need to beat #10 Ireland and home country #12 Malaysia for this to be an overall decent trip by the Indian team.

[PKBasu]

We generally do better at the Azlan Shah Cup than elsewhere. It is nearly a home tournament for India, so I'd say this year's performance is a disappointment.

[sameerph]

To be fair this is virtually our second team. I think only 5-6 from this team will make it to the final 16 when select our best team for commonwealth games. So, our performance here should be viewed in that context.

[ssp]

5-1 win over Malaysia today to give us a good chance to play 3/4th match and outside chance of a final. For the final, we need to beat Ireland and hope Australia beat Argentina (quite likely unless Aussies choose to take it easy) AND also for Malaysia and England to draw( unlikely as I expect the Asian team to be undone by the physical superiority of the English... and also the umpiring).

I'm fairly pleased with our displays so far. We collapsed in Q3 against Australia, conceded a late goal against England and gave away too many PCs against Argentina for Peillat to take the game away. But generally, our play has been fine. We may have a lot of youngsters, but Sumit Kumar has been way better than our usual selections in attack and Nilam Xess has been good enough at this level.

The presence of Sreejesh, Harmanpreet, Manpreet, Rupinder Pal and Sunil would have made us stronger, but in the past, our 2nd XI would have got hammered by 4-5 goals in most of these matches. Our structure and hard running has been really good.

[sameerph]

The presence of Sreejesh, Harmanpreet, Manpreet, Rupinder Pal and Sunil would have made us stronger

And also Chinglensana, probably Lalit too, also the youngsters Dilpreet and Vivek Sagar Prasad who played so well in New Zealand.

It is great to see that now we have built such a good bench strength that any team which we field among 20 or so players is quite competitive against most of the teams in the world.

[ssp]

And also Chinglensana, probably Lalit too, also the youngsters Dilpreet and Vivek Sagar Prasad who played so well in New Zealand.

Last 2 were a revelation and I would include both for the CWG (and drop Uthappa and Mandeep). Nilakanta reminds me of Chinglensana because he loses the ball too easily (Chinglensana has improved a lot in the last year or so) but is a good athlete and with experience maybe Nilakanta will become much more consistent. In fact, the selectors are overlooking the Manpreet jnr from the U21 WC as he is stronger on the ball and keeps running strongly throughout the match.

I was impressed with Jarmanpreet (from 2013/14 U21 squad) in midfield, but he seems to have been discarded from all of the squads!

[Ayush1234567]

If Australia And India Win Their Matches Tomorrow which is expected to happen and England Malaysia Match Gets Tied..India will play the final against Australia

[PKBasu]

5-1 win over Malaysia is good to see. And yes, it is great that even a (virtually) second-string India side is able to hold its own in this tournament.

[arjun2761]

Yes, the thrashing of Malaysia is pretty good as Malaysia beat Argentina 2-1 in their previous match. Hopefully, we can beat Ireland and that will put us in the final if Australia beat Argentina and England tie Malaysia.

[ssp]

We have lost for the first time to Ireland!

Absolutely shocking to see this kind of rubbish after the win over Malaysia. We will play the same team for 5/6 place. Lost for words....

[rajitghosh]

This team is becoming an embarrassment.

[sameerph]

This team is becoming an embarrassment.

I would not go and say this much based on just 1 loss.

But, this was a bad loss just when we were saying how good a depth we have built.

[jayakris]

Crap happens sometimes. If we are going to crap, I would rather have the dump happen at Azlan Shah than in some event that actually matters. But this was about as steaming a pile as could be imagined, that we dropped there.

[arjun2761]

Yes, they really laid an egg here as the other two losses were to the top 2 teams in the world. Hopefully, they can crush them in the rematch and regain their confidence...