Junior Indian Hockey - men and women

[ssp]

We hammered NZ 8-2 today. That score flatters NZ. We could have easily gone into double figures.

We moved the ball around quite brilliantly and our skills were lovely to watch. There were no crazy dribbles in defence and ball speed was much better than yesterday's match. We hassled the ball carrier very well and as a result got lots of turnovers.

On the down side, Maninder continues to do the silliest things. He picked up 2 green cards (both for not retreating 5m), gifted the PC that led to NZ's st goal and generally messed up simple passes. He has been in the junior squad for 2+ years and I've seen him do this kind of stuff on several occasions.

I still think Australia and GB will punish us for our unforced errors and indiscipline. The umpiring will be a big obstacle too. Today, we had so many calls given against us. The Kiwis were quite physical and unsurprisingly they didn't get any cards for pushing or even tripping our players.

[jaydeep]

Yes, impressed with our boys' performance ... As usual, a couple of dead-woods, but more positives from our players.

[ssp]

5-1 win over Australia today. As against NZ, that scoreline does not reflect our dominance! This win takes us to 9 points. Even a loss to GB will see us through to the final because of our +11 goal difference. It's likely we'll meet GB in the final. Australia & Malaysia are out of contention.

Makes yesterday's loss to Japan even more baffling. How can a team be so brilliant one day and then lose the next? However, this happens more frequently in junior teams, but we take this inconsistency to new levels.

We have some wonderfully skilled players. Very impressed with Pratap Lakra, Sanjay, Vishnukant and Sudeep. Up front Shilanand Lakra & Dilpreet have shown their class. Mandeep Mor also seems to have cut the crazy dribbles at the back and seem a safer bet than before. Maninder didn't get a card and actually played quite well. In fact the weakest player seems to be Gursahibjit and he is the only one of this squad in the senior team! Makes no sense, but our selectors and reality are not connected.

We have squandered many talented players (especially in attack) but insist on staying with Mandeep & Akashdeep.

[sameerph]

5-1 win over Australia today. As against NZ, that scoreline does not reflect our dominance! This win takes us to 9 points. Even a loss to GB will see us through to the final because of our +11 goal difference. It's likely we'll meet GB in the final. Australia & Malaysia are out of contention.

Makes yesterday's loss to Japan even more baffling. How can a team be so brilliant one day and then lose the next? However, this happens more frequently in junior teams, but we take this inconsistency to new levels.

Yes, that Japan loss was really surprising considering how we have been beating up top teams here. However, it does teams are inconsistent here. Great Britain beat Australia but lost to Malaysia who lost to NZ. So, anything can happen on a day.

[ssp]

Today, we lost 2-1 in the final to GB.

I couldn't watch all the game, but had a quick look at the score with 1 min to go and it was 1-1, so fully expected us to lose from there and our team didn't surprise as conceding in the dying seconds is absolutely guaranteed for juniors, seniors, men or women

Today, we conceded with seconds to go!

Overall, we have exciting and talented players but structure is poor as we concede far too many goals in every single match. Usually this is because of gifted PCs or poor marking or just last minute goals that we specialise in. I'm not convinced that the coach here (Kariappa) can get a medal at the next JWC. Harendra's team before the 2016 WC seemed much better organised and played some lovely hockey. Maybe the stick skills of this team are even better but they seem too inconsistent as a team.

HI's dithering on coaches will hurt us at this level too.

[ssp]

Our junior ladies have won a 3 nations tournament in Australia, featuring the hosts and NZ. Results were 2-0 win v NZ, 1-1 v Oz, 4-1 v NZ and 1-2 v Oz

Shame we lost the last game. Baljit Singh Saini is coaching this group and I hope he does as good a job as Harendra did for our U21 men.

[ssp]

The 2021 men's junior world cup is set to go ahead in Bubaneshwar:
https://www.hockeyindia.org/news/odisha ... hubaneswar

I had a feeling it would be cancelled or pushed back to next year. Australia and NZ have pulled out, so 2 American teams replace them- USA & Canada. Surely Japan had a stronger case than USA!. England aren't sure if they'll participate.

Not sure how the groups will shape up, but I suspect there will be 1 Asian & 1 American team per group.

[ssp]

Looks like the men's junior WC is going ahead as planned despite England also pulling out.

Here are the pools & schedule for the women's WC:
http://www.fih.ch/events/hockey-junior- ... s-matches/

And the men's:
http://www.fih.ch/events/hockey-junior- ... d-matches/

Our preparations have been hit by Dengue fever:
https://indianexpress.com/article/sport ... p-7578800/

On a more positive note, Graham Reid has taken over as head coach. Let's hope he works his magic with the juniors too .

[prasen9]

'Tis good that Reid is getting a first hand look at the juniors and the juniors are getting to talk to him directly.

[ssp]

Squads for both men's and women's junior world cups have been announced.

https://www.hockeyindia.org/news/hockey ... frica-2021
https://www.hockeyindia.org/news/hockey ... eswar-2021

England's women will be playing in South Africa, but as mentioned in a previous post, their men joined Australia and New Zealand in pulling out!

Pleased to see Vivek Sagar Prasad in's team the men and Lalremsiami, Salima Tete and Sharmila Devi in the women's.

Due to the Covid pandemic, there haven't been many junior matches or tournaments for almost 2 years, so no idea which teams will be competitive-especially in the women's WC. Our men looked pretty impressive at the Sultan Johor Cup in 2019 and most of that team have been selected.

[ssp]

Men's junior WC has started
Live streaming on this: https://watch.hockey/

[ssp]

Shocking start. 2-0 down after 7 mins
France are just too fast and physical for our guys

Got it to 2-2, but France are slicing through our defence at will. 3-2 down now and under pressure. Several PCs for France.

Any aerial for France is a sure threat. Yet another PC conceded by terrible defending

France deservedly 3-2 ahead at half time. If our defending doesn't improve, we'll lose this

[jayakris]

Oh boy...

[ssp]

4-2 down now.
What a pathetic start to Q3

Might be a good time to switch off

Had high hopes of a good showing, but this team is not a patch on the 2016 or even the recent Johor Cup teams. France are just too good for us

5-2. Got to the stage where it's interesting to see the ineptitude. France can easily score another 1 or 2 goals. We have no defence.

Finished 5-4. Ok, we missed a few good chances and hit the post twice, but for large parts of the game we played dumb hockey. Hurried, risky passes, zero outcome from circle entries and really awful defending. France were the better team for 70-80% of the match

We should get into the QF, but will run into a much stronger team than France.

[PKBasu]

What a disastrous start to the Junior Hockey World Cup. The Olympic euphoria is well and truly over. I must say I didn't expect this stunning loss; in fact, I thought it would be a thoroughly routine win. Unbelievable that this is happening at home