Junior Indian Hockey - men and women

[ssp]

Nice win over Pakistan when it really mattered. As I said in an earlier post, we were favourites and our toughest opponents were probably Malaysia, but they self destructed in the quarter final and made this title easier!
Harmanpreet is a great prospect and I would give him a chance in the senior team. There are 2-3 others (Dipsan Tirkey, Harjeet Singh, Arman Qureshi and Nilakanta Sharma) who look really good. I hope our inefficient system doesn't squander these talented players.

There is category of players that do very well at U21 level and then disappear from the scene, while weak/non performers are always selected and they keep costing us in vital matches. Jarmanpreet and Gurinder are 2 players who should be in the senior set up.

[PKBasu]

6-1 in the semifinal and 6-2 in the final -- that is about as decisive a set of results as we could wish for. Congrats to the India junior hockey squad for winning the Asia Cup.

[arjun2761]

Based on the results, this looks like a really good group. Hopefully, the best of these players are carefully nurtured and transitioned into the national squad to both replace the underperformers and up-level the competition for those seeking to play on our national team.

[PKBasu]

The really heartening aspect of the performance in the tournament is that the team got better as the tournament progressed. The first round-robin match against Japan had a narrow margin of victory, but the team kept its unbeaten record at that pool stage -- and then unloaded all its awesome ability in the semifinal against Japan (6-1) and the final against Pakistan (6-2 ). That is very nice to see.

[ssp]

Our juniors are on a tour to England. Today, they beat the senior Scottish team 5-1! A couple of days ago, we beat the same team 2-1. Today's win is very impressive and there are 3-4 players that should be graduating to the senior team soon; Varun Kumar, Gurinder Singh, Gurjant Singh and Nilakanta Sharma. I think these guys are already better than some of our Rio squad, even though they may lack experience. However, the performances of Surender Kumar and Harmanpreet have shown that if a player is good enough, he should be selected without worrying about age or experience. We should be using tournaments like the Asian champions trophy or Azlan Shah Cup to try these younger players

Next we play England's U21s. This will be a good test as we lost to them twice in the 2015 Sultan Johor Cup.

[ssp]

Just watched our U21s hammer England U21s 7-1. We dominated the game after an even first 20 mins. We didn't seem to have any weak players and there was no let up in the intensity for the full 70 mins (didn't play the new 4 quarters format). I like the way some of our young guys are shaping up and hope to see these guys progress into the senior squad soon. The pick of the goals was Simranjeet's strike from the top of the D into top corner.

[PKBasu]

Nice to see that the pipeline of young players remains strong. Now to convert them into world-class performers at the national team level...

[arjun2761]

Looks like we tied the series 2-2 with England. We followed the 7-1 win with a pair of 1-2 losses before winning the 4th match 3-1. Reading the descriptions, it looks like we had a lot more skill and talent but also some of our normal efficiency flaws. Link to descriptionof the 4th match.

[jaydeep]

In surprising result India went down to Bangladesh 4-5 in the U-18 Asia Cup hockey opener on Saturday.

[ssp]

India are through to the final of the U18 Asia cup for a re-match against Bangladesh. I hope we can reverse the shock defeat of the pool game. In the semi, we beat Pakistan 3-1. Always pleasing to beat any Pakistani team, although their decline has made it a relatively common occurrence, especially at junior levels.

Three of the U21s are in this team-Hardik Singh, Neelam Sanjeep Xess and Mohd Umar.

[sameerph]

Is this our best under 18 team. Can't believe we lost to Bangadesh in Hockey even at this level.

Btw, our under 21 team is playing in Australian Hockey league where some of the other national junior teams also are playing. We started with a 4-2 win over Malayasia blues.

[jaydeep]

In the final also similar score, 5-4, but this time we managed to turn table on Bangladesh ... Congratulations to our u-18 team!

India scored in the final 20 seconds to clinch the 4th Men's U-18 Asia Cup ... At half-time we were 1-2 down then we were leading 3-2 and 4-3 but both times these Bangladesh boys fought back ... Looks like good young Bangladeshi hockey team.

[ssp]

Pleasing results from u18s and u21s.
As Jaydeep mentioned in the last post, the Bangladeshi team looks good. I might sound cynical, but are they really u18?
I expected us to beat them easily, but both matches were very close. Happy to see us scoring right at the end of a game for a change!
I'm more impressed with our u21s beating South Australia in the AHL. This is our 2nd win and gives us a chance of progressing into the semis, although we will need to get good results against Tassie Tigers and Western Australia. Hopefully, ACT are not as strong and we can get a win in that encounter. I wasn't expecting any wins at all

[ssp]

Our u21s are performing brilliantly in the Australian Hockey league. They have qualified for the semis after 3 wins and a draw. Today they beat Eddid Ockenden's team Tassie Tigers 3-2 with a late goal from Armaan Qureshi. They are doing the opposite of India's senior teams- stringing together 4 good results and scoring late in a game!
It would be interesting to see how this team shapes up against our full senior team. It would be a close game, and I think the U21s have better forwards than the full team! If Harmanpreet goes back to the U21s, I reckon they could even beat the seniors!

[sameerph]

Yes, that is a good run from them. Armaan Qureshi appears to be one of the better forwards. Who are the others ? This is the area where we are the weakest in seniors.

From the team staff list, it appears that Oltmans is also there although as an assistant coach to Harendra on paper. So, hope he catches the bright talent and inducts some in the senior team soon.