Junior Indian Hockey - men and women

[arjun2761]

Disappointing loss for India U-21. Perhaps, blame it on Covid for the defending champions from the last edition in 2016.

However, seems like France are somewhat of a U-21 specialists having reached the finals and finishing 2nd in the first edition of the U-21 championship in 2013.

[ssp]

I think these players have talent but the structure and defending is poor. The French were able to past our midfield and defence really easily.

Kariappa is the main coach, even though Graham Reid has been roped in. Harendra's team from 2014-2016 were much better coached and they could defend as well as open up opposition defences.

We have to factor in the lack of competitive matches for this team. Maybe they'll improve, but if they play like this, the Dutch or Spanish will beat us easily in the QF -assuming we get there

[ssp]

13-1 win v Canada. It was no contest at all. We could won by 4-5 more goals. The key match will be the QF against Netherlands (12-5 winners v Korea!) or Spain (17-0 winners v USA).

France seem to be much better than expected and we were pretty poor for most of yesterday's match. I'm hoping we keep improving with each match.

The gap between the top 6-8 teams and the rest is huge.

[ssp]

Looks like we'll be playing Belgium in the QF and not Netherlands or Spain. Had we avoided defeat against France, it would have been Malaysia or South Africa, so a much easier route to the semi final.

[arjun2761]

To defend our title, you have to beat the best anyway. So let's get them in the QFs if needed

[ssp]

Arjun, you are right.

Malaysia drew 1-1 with Belgium, so we have a good chance. If we play to our potential and somehow sort out our midfield and defence we can beat any team. There's plenty of talent in this squad.

Uttam Singh, Sanjay, Shardanand Tiwari, Vishnukanth, Sudeep Chirmako and Rabichandra caught my eye at the 2017-2019 Sultan Johor Cups. Maninder is being played in attack here. I'd move him into midfield as his work rate could plug the holes evident in the France game.

We have 4 drag flickers in the team! With the stick skills we have, we should be getting loads of PCs.

[ssp]

England pulled out the men's JWC because of the Covid pandemic. However, they did not withdraw from the women's event which was to be held in South Africa.

http://fih.ch/news/fih-hockey-women-s-j ... t-on-hold/

How silly do they look now? Still feel we should pull out of the entire CWG. Let them wallow in their 'greatness'

[arjun2761]

India beats Poland 8-2 but France wins big as well. So India finishes second in their pool but advances to QF.

[ssp]

Rather scrappy, undisciplined performance against Poland. Some brilliance mixed with atrocious defending.

At the back we look awful. So much space for the opposition attackers to move into, then we tackle horribly and inevitably we will concede loads of PCs and pick up cards. The umpire at our end was at his 'best' in Q4 as every decision went Poland's way. Even clean tackles were called against us.

We will need a good start against Belgium, unlike the France game. Then we have to be patient and not keep giving the ball away and avoid picking up cards. Let's hope the umpiring is reasonable too.

[SaniaFan]

India defeated Belgium 1-0 to enter the semi finals. India went into the lead in 21st minute and was able to defend for next 39 minutes.

[Atithee]

Good news. Especially holding the lead for such a long time against an European team.

[jayakris]

That was a bit of a surprise. Not the win, but defending the lead for that long! Good job, India!

[ssp]

Nice win and a clean sheet! I honestly thought our only chance was to score 3 goals as we were bound to concede at least 2.

Some lovely stuff mixed in with some crazy turnovers in dangerous positions. One of the umpires was good, the other guy was a standard gora idiot. One of our players got carded and in the next minute Vivek was physically pushed over. Not even a green when a yellow was warranted. All 50/50 tackles were naturally Belgium's fouls as were any tackles at all...

Gurmukh & Yashdeep were the weak links today. We only showed our attacking flair occasionally, but did enough to get the result.

On the positive side, Sanjay, Vishnukanth, Uttam, Araijeet and Sudeep are great prospects. Maninder is really skillful and seems to have cut out his habit of picking up cards. He's been injured for the last 2 matches. Hopefully, he'll be fit for the semi final.

Germany have several players from the Tokyo Olympics squad here, so they will be a hard team to beat.

[SaniaFan]

This is fifth straight time Indian juniors have won against Belgium. This is good streak against a top team. I hope our boys take this confidence with them when they graduate to the senior team.
Two more matches to go...

[arjun2761]

Next up is a revenge match against France who easily handled Malaysia 4-0.