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Re: 10th Asia Cup 2017 - Bangladesh

Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2017 4:27 pm
by Varma
Pardon me for my ignorance, but what happened to Srijesh?

- Varma

Re: 10th Asia Cup 2017 - Bangladesh

Posted: Sat Sep 30, 2017 3:11 am
by jaydeep
Sreejesh tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup ... He has since undergone surgery and a lengthy rehabilitation process.

Sreejesh: 'Injury has opened my eyes to life outside hockey'

Re: 10th Asia Cup 2017 - Bangladesh

Posted: Sat Sep 30, 2017 3:25 am
by jayakris
Misfortune is never too far from Malayalee sportsmen named "Sree-whatever". Some get slapped by others, and some get ACL tears.

But ACLs are tough injuries. Get well fast, Sree.

Re: 10th Asia Cup 2017 - Bangladesh

Posted: Sat Sep 30, 2017 5:56 am
by Varma
Come on, Jay...you don't want to speak of these two Srees in the same vein. One went on to captain the Indian team by sheer hard work while the other got carried away with his success and ended up selling his soul. I love the former and loathe the latter (no soft-corner whatsoever!)

- Varma

Re: 10th Asia Cup 2017 - Bangladesh

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2017 4:40 pm
by jaydeep
India produced better performance in the second half to beat Japan 5-1 in their opening campaign at the 10th edition of the men' Asia Cup hockey tournament.

Re: 10th Asia Cup 2017 - Bangladesh

Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 4:28 am
by sameerph
Many a times we are troubled by Japan. So, good to see that we beat them comprehensively. Good start under a new coach.

Re: 10th Asia Cup 2017 - Bangladesh

Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2017 3:04 pm
by jaydeep
Indian hockey team gave another solid performance in the Asia Cup to force 7-0 defeat on Bangladesh in their second match ... The scoreline was different if we had converted penalty corners ... We converted only 2 from 13 penalty corners ... Next, India will be up against Pakistan on Sunday in their last match of the pool.

Re: 10th Asia Cup 2017 - Bangladesh

Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2017 4:31 pm
by ssp
I watched most of our game against Bangladesh. There was no real threat from the opposition so difficult to judge how the team is performing under the new coach.

However, Sardar is playing as sweeper (Rupinder Pal's role and his position under Brasa) and the passing amongst the forwards looks quicker. We are missing lots of chances and the PC routines were poor. Harmanpreet kept aiming to the keepers left even though the defensive runners were blocking that area. He must have wasted 5-6 flicks because of this. When he went to the other side, he scored straight away. This was rather silly. We had Varun and Amit Rohidas as alternatives, but didn't use them until about the 9th or 10th PC. Varun set up our 6th goal by relaying the ball back to the pusher, who swept the ball past the keeper. Just some composure and common sense could have seen 2-3 more goals from the dozen or so PCs we got.

Let's see how we perform against Pakistan. They drew 2-2 with Japan today, but expect them to raise their game several notches against us.

Re: 10th Asia Cup 2017 - Bangladesh

Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2017 4:23 pm
by sameerph
We beat Pakistan 3-1. I saw parts of the match. After going 3-0 up, we seemed to have relaxed a lot. Very good performance from some of those promoted from junior world cup team - Sumit, Dipsan Tirkey and Gurjant.

Re: 10th Asia Cup 2017 - Bangladesh

Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2017 6:10 pm
by ssp
Didn't see the full match, but pleasing to see us winning against Pakistan.

Compared to the HWL thrashings recently, Pakistan put up a better fight, mainly because they had 3-4 of their regulars back. These experienced players were dropped for the HWL because they didn't attend the trials.

Our PC routines are not really working. Looks like Harmanpreet has the first call on drag flicks, followed by Varun and Amit Rohidas gets nothing! Straight flicks to the left side of the keeper are simply being run down. This maybe because the push out is a tad too slow or more likely, Harmanpreet has a long drag which gives the runners enough time to close off that angle.

I rate Harmanpreet very highly. I feel he could become our best player in the coming years, because he has excellent skill, is calm under pressure, is good at going forward and can pick out some great passes. But he needs to work out his PC flicks.

Of the others (mentioned by Sameer), Sumit, Gurjant and Dipsan are welcome additions to the senior squad. I'd like to see Gurinder and Armaan given many more opportunities.

Now we go on to the super 4s. We will play Korea, Malaysia and Pakistan and the top two in this mini league will contest the final. I feel this is a rather silly format as we may end up playing Pakistan 3 times. Let's hope we can reverse our recent losses to Malaysia first and also get a win over Korea, who have caused us a lot of difficulty over the past 2-3 decades!

Re: 10th Asia Cup 2017 - Bangladesh

Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2017 3:47 am
by jaydeep
I was disappointed after watching yesterday's match ... Lackluster performance ... Pakistan was defending better than us and we had poor man marking inside the circle ... Pakistan had three penalty corners before the half-time and we had none ... In the last quarter, Pakistan was controlling the match and had far too many circle penetrations ... Suraj and Akash Chikte were good in front of the goal ... Our defending was poor as we were giving lot more space ... Nothing great to write about our forward line but overall mid-fielders were looking better in comparison with others.

Re: 10th Asia Cup 2017 - Bangladesh

Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 12:36 pm
by ssp
Into Q3 and still 0-0 v Korea.
Really flat game as Korea are defending in numbers and our passing in the final third of the pitch is pretty poor. We are making silly mistakes when in good positions. Akashdeep as usual, is the main culprit. Ramandeep and Sunil also losing possession easily or mis trapping. Some really silly basic errors creeping in and then it takes a lot of running to regain possession.

Oh dear, we have gone 1-0 down, due to dreadful defending. Atrocious play by Varun & Surender, but sort of expected us to concede at least one goal. :damn:

Probably best to stop watching now.

Re: 10th Asia Cup 2017 - Bangladesh

Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 12:42 pm
by sameerph
Yes, just started watching and we conceded. Poor defence. Before that Akashdeep could not trap a pass while he was in front of the goal.

Re: 10th Asia Cup 2017 - Bangladesh

Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 12:51 pm
by ssp
We seem unable to break down this Korean defence. Just hopeful crash balls seem to be our only plan. It would help if our forwards could stop the ball or pass accurately.
It seems more likely that Korea will score another on the break. Only 8 mins left and we have created nothing in Q4. In fact, we are looking a bit silly.
3 mins left. Giving up now.

Gurjant equalized in the last minute (soon as I stopped watching!! ;) ).

1-1 is way better than I feared after we let that really soft goal in. We are incapable of keeping our concentration for an entire match, so any well organised team will get chances to score against us or we'll gift away a goal in almost every game.

Today, our forwards were poor- especially Akashdeep (no surprise), Sunil and Ramandeep. At the back, Surender seems to have lost form and is making silly errors in most games.

In a game like this, we need to try and get more PCs as passing our way into the circle was very difficult. Our forwards need to trap the ball properly and then try and eliminate a defender. Unfortunately, none of them seemed capable of doing anything right.

Re: 10th Asia Cup 2017 - Bangladesh

Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2017 1:11 pm
by sameerph
We managed to level the score in the last minute thru a Gurjant goal. Ends 1-1.