Hockey World League (Men's and Women's)

[Ankit Desai]

India is trashing Fiji in last 20 mins.

16-0 FT.

Hero Hockey World League Round 2 - Men

Schedule and Results

February 18th, 2013

China bt Oman 4-0 (2-0)
Ireland bt Bangladesh 5-2 (0-0)
India bt Fiji 16-0(7-0)

-Ankit

[ssp]

Big scores for both women & men, but not too impressed with either team.

Both sides had possession almost all the time as their opponents simply gave the ball away every time.

The women kept the ball better than they usually do and credit must go to their coach, however against stronger, more skilled sides, the lack of ball speed on their passes will hurt our team.

The men missed a lot of open chances. Almost all of the front line were guilty of shooting wide, mis-trapping or generally taking the wrong decision in the D. Mandeep had a poor match, as did Malak. Akashdeep was marginally better. Sunil too missed some easy chances. Of the others, Gurjinder gave away a PC with his usual rash tackling and Dharamvir managed to lose the ball a few times even against this opposition. Danish played well, but I'd like to see him put in strong performances against European/ Aussie teams.

16-0 sounds like a great score, but I recall Australia scoring around 30 against them.

[Ankit Desai]

Chandi was not seen on pitch nor in the box while Akashdeep was not part of squad ! Interesting !

-Ankit

[ssp]

Ankit: Chandi picked up an injury and Akashdeep was brought in from the 'stand by list'.

Chandi was king of mis-traps around 2010 WC, but has improved. Akashdeep & Malak are pretty good at mis-trapping or generally losing possession at the moment. I'm hoping they make progress on this. So losing Chandi has definitely weakened the team.

[Ankit Desai]

Hockey World League Round 2 - Women

Schedule and Results

February 19th, 2013

Russia bt Fiji 9-0 (4-0)
Japan bt Kazakhstan 11-0 (6-0)
India bt Malaysia 3-0(1-0)

-Ankit

[jaydeep]

Coach Hawgood unhappy with India's 3-0 win over Malaysia

Coach Neil Hawgood panned the team's performance. "We got three points but the girls played their worst hockey in six months," Hawgood said. "Malaysia are a good team and the win is important but a lot of work needs to be done before our next match," he added. For starters, they need to convert more chances.

[ssp]

Pretty poor showing by our women. 3-0 flattered us a little as Malaysia created some really good chances and competed well in midfield. As I expected, we were poor in retaining possession. 3 or maybe 4 passes was our maximum achievement. There were lots of sloppy passes and mis-traps throughout the match. On this showing, Japan will beat us. There are some good things that Hawgood has done - pressing the opponent, transferring the ball nicely from side to side at the back, cutting out the stupid, aimless hits from the back, but we are nowhere near the stronger & fitter teams of Europe & Oceania.

[jaydeep]

Bangladesh scored upset win over Chinese team.

Men's - February 20th, 2013
India vs Oman (8 pm IST)<

Ireland bt Fiji 13-0 (5-0)
Bangladesh bt China 3-2 (2-2)

[Ankit Desai]

India vs Oman (4-1) HT
India vs Oman 9-1 FT

Men's - February 20th, 2013

Ireland bt Fiji 13-0 (5-0)
Bangladesh bt China 3-2 (2-2)
India bt Oman 9-1(4-1)

-Ankit

[Ankit Desai]

Nice to see Mandeep's more involvement. IIRC he has direct involvement in 3 goals and many moves. Goal #4,5,6 in 4th he earned PC for India, 5th a beautiful pass to dharamvir which resulted in goal and 6th a classic field goal by him self. If he would not missed two direct shoot, it was his day. He should work on those miss. Both were same mistake shoot high to the goal post.

-Ankit

[ssp]

I think Mandeep was trying too hard in the Fiji game. He seems to have a little bit extra compared to our usual 'forwards'. He has pace, skills and intelligent movement. He traps well on the run and can score or create goals. I haven't seen a better youngster since Sardar. Gurbaj, too looked good till a shocking 2012. I've heard rumours of indiscipline and apathy from him regarding fitness and following Nobbs' instructions.
Going back to Mandeep, he looks a bit lightweight and may struggle against the more physically stronger defenders of Europe & Oceania.

[ssp]

Watching women's match between India & Fiji.
We are 4-0 up after 30 mins. Pretty poor showing by our women. Loads of unforced errors. Lots of hopeful hits into the D and lots of misses and silly decisions in the D. No clue on PC variations....Not impressed at all
OK 1st half done and only 4 goals. Fiji have packed their defence and that is enough to nullify our attacks. PCs have been a total farce.

I know women's hockey can be unpredictable (Japan drew with Russia today), but against Fiji, we should be doing much better than this.

I think 2nd half is going even worse. Really silly errors as mentioned above....oh forgot abysmal ball speed on passes and holding onto the ball needlessly. Only 2 goals scored in 20 mins. PCs are laughable. Fiji can give away another 10 Ps in the safe knowledge that we wont score off these.. What the hell has Hawgood been doing. This is rubbish

[ssp]

Finished 10-0.
Looks like we peaked in our 1st game against Kazakhstan. This performance was pathetic. Fiji couldn't string 3 pases together in whole match. With all the possession, we looked bereft of ideas on how to score. So many aimless whacks into the D. When we did get a sight of the goal, our players chose a big wind up when a flick or push would have been better. The ball was hit straight at the keeper's pads on numerous occasions. PCs were atrocious. When Jaspreet decided to drag-flick, she scored, yet the previous dozen attempts were all silly variations or slap hits looking for deflections or usually awful stops or push outs.
Trapping and 1st touch was usually awful. We look miles off decent, mid-ranking teams....forget the top 6.
On this showing, we may struggle to beat Russia. We don't deserve to get to the world cup on this showing. Our ladies don't seem to have the basic skills required.

[jaydeep]

Yes, Indian coach Hawgood need to work on penalty corners drill with our team as in last two matches those will be very important ... ... Russia hold Japan in the full-time before losing in tie-break.

Men's - February 21st, 2013
India vs Ireland (8 pm IST)

China bt Fiji 4-1 (1-0)
Bangladesh bt Oman 4-1 (0-0) (3-2)

Women's - February 21st, 2013
India bt Fiji 10-0 (4-0)
Malaysia bt Kazakhstan 3-1 (3-0)
Japan bt Russia 1-1 (0-1) (3-2 PS)

[ssp]

Men trying to out do the women in the rubbish table.
2-2 with 15 mins to go. Any decent, organized team and we look so mediocre
We could lose this match. Anything is possible with our teams....
Dharamvir restores the lead. How long will this last?Ireland get a PC because of idiotic/ panic defending. I expect the equalizer from this.
Escaped last PC, now another one conceded with 1 min to go....agony goes on. Another PC conceded.
We hang on. Not convincing at all.
Both teams disappointed today.

Discipline is still pathetic. How many of our players get carded for rash tackling. When will these guys learn (never is probably the correct answer)? They simply have to hack their sticks even when they are not balanced or when there is little danger to our D. Trapping is laughable and so many players lose possession at a blink of an eye.

Not a good day for either team. Not impressed with either Aussie coach. Sort out the basics ...if a players is repeatedly messing simple traps, please drop him....please.