Hockey at Rio Olympics

[jaydeep]

Groups are declared for Olympics. Our men's team is with defending champions Germany, European champions Netherlands, Pan-American Games champions Argentina, Canada and Ireland in the six-team Pool B.
Australia, Great Britain, Belgium, New Zealand, Spain and Brazil formed Pool A

6th August 2016 - vs Ireland
8th August 2016 - vs Germany
9th August 2016 - vs Argentina
11th August 2016 - vs Netherlands
12th August 2016 - vs Canada

The top four teams from each pool will qualify for the knock-out stage, beginning August 14.

[jaydeep]

Our women's team is in tough group with Argentina, Australia, Great Britain, Japan and USA.

7th August 2016 - vs Japan
8th August 2016 - vs Great Britain
10th August 2016 - vs Australia
11th August 2016 - vs USA
13th August 2016 - vs Argentina

[sameerph]

Thanks, Jaydeep. We need to rename the thread as " Hockey at Rio Olympics " so as not to confuse with another thread already open for general discussion at Rio Olympics.

[jaydeep]

Done Sameer.

[ssp]

As we are notoriously slow starters, I'm nervous about the Ireland game. We simply have to beat Ireland and Canada to get into the QF. Looking at the other pool, 4th place in our group will mean our usual thrashing from the Aussies in QF. So we need to get into 3rd or preferably 2nd in our group. That is a tall order because we always seem to lose to Holland, Germany and Argentina when it really matters.

I'll be delighted with any kind of win against Ireland to keep us in the competition. However, in the last 30-35 yrs we are usually out of any decent placings by the 2nd game!

The ladies are going to struggle. I csn't see them scoring too many and the best we can hope for is a draw against Japan and keeping the margins of defeats against the other teams down to 2-3 goals.

HI have screwed up any chances of a good showing for both the men and women, by their idiotic choices/decisions on coaches. Hawgood is mediocre at best and although Oltmans is pretty good, he is no Walsh.

[Sin Hombre]

Still an easier group for us.

[PKBasu]

That four (rather than two) teams from each pool will make it to the knock-out stage is potentially a huge opportunity for us: less pressure in every match during the pool stage, with a much higher probability of making it at least to the QF. Of course, we need to avoid playing Australia in the QF, so our men's team needs to focus on trying to beat not only Ireland and Canada, but also as many of the other 3 as possible (Argentina has usually troubled us, but are surely beatable, and we have started doing better against Germany in recent times).

[ssp]

Men's team is going to be announced on 12th July.
I think Birendra won't make it as he isn't fully fit. Shame as he is one of our key players. I think the breakdown of the 15 outfield players will be 5 defenders, 5 midfielders and 5 forwards.
Due to our weak forwards, Oltmans was trying out Sardar as forward in the recent Valencia 6 nations tournament. That would free up an extra place for a midfielder or defender.
Other teams have a definite edge over us when it comes to playing in different positions. Apart from Devindar Walmiki and Manpreet, most of our players are not comfortable playing out of their normal positions. These two will help out in defence and Sardar will help out in attack.

[ssp]

Mens team:

1. SARDAR SINGH 2. VR RAGHUNATH 3. KOTHAJIT 4. S K UTHAPPA 5. HARMANPREET SINGH 6. RUPINDERPAL SINGH 7. SURENDER KUMAR 8. MANPREET SINGH 9. DANISH MUJTABA 10. DEVINDER WALMIKI 11. S V SUNIL 12. AKASHDEEP SINGH 13. RAMANDEEP SINGH 14. NIKKIN THIMMAIAH 15. CHINGLENSANA 16. P R SREEJESH

Womens team:
1. NAVJOT KAUR 2. DEEP EKKA GRACE 3. MONIKA 4. SAVITA 5. POONAM RANI 6. VANDANA KATARIA 7. DEEPIKA 8. NAMITA TOPPO 9. RENUKA YADAV 10. SUNITA LAKRA 11. SUSHILA CHANU 12. RANI RAMPAL 13. PREETI DUBEY 14. LILIMA MINZ 15. ANURADHA DEVI 16. NIKKI PRADHAN

I don't agree with at least 3 of the men's squad and Jaspreet should be in the women's team (she seems to have disappeared from the selectors plans) and Ritu Rani was dropped last week.

Don't know what's happened to Dharamvir, but he will be missed, as will Gurbaj and Affan Yousseff. I hope Uthappa is played in attack where his sloppy play will make no difference ( as most of our forwards lose the ball anyway). Let's hope the intensity is good (unlike in Valencia) in all the matches and we keep our discipline and for once string together a good sequence of results.

The women will struggle as we just can't play the ball out of defence and our coach has done nothing to improve our style of play.

[sameerph]

More or less expected squad except that Talwinder and Mandeep are not chosen which is a welcome step. I was hoping but did not expect Gurbaz, Dharamveer and Lalit to be picked.

Change in the captaincy from Sardara to Sreejesh ? What is the intentions of Hockey India in this move ?

[ssp]

Agree with Talwinder and Mandeep's omission. Also agree that Lalit and Gurbaj are better options as are Affan Yousseff and Amir Khan.
Just found out that Dharamvir has a back injury and that explains his absence.

I suspect Sardar's removal from the captaincy is to do with this:
http://bharatiyahockey.org/calendar/cal ... apeAccused

I also think this was the reason for his absence at the London CT

[prasen9]

Birendra Lakra is not going to be fit for Rio. Is that a big loss? Or is he not that useful? I have not got to watch matches in a long time. Hence the query to those of you who follow closely.

[ssp]

Birendra Lakra is a quality player and will be missed. However, the emergence of Harmanpreet and Surender will help to cover Birenra's loss.

I feel the bigger loss maybe Dharamvir, who has been a strong performer too, especially since 2014. His replacement is Uthappa, who has been a weak link despite having played early 100 matches. Let's hope Oltmans can devise plans to get the best out of the players available.

[Sathya]

How come Srijesh made captain? Will it not affect the team? (agreed he was the captain during CT, still....)

[Sin Hombre]

Netherlands - Argentina finishes 3-3. Good result for us.