Re: Champions trophy Hockey 2016, London

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sameerph
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Re: Champions trophy Hockey 2016, London

Post by sameerph »

In the end, we lost 2-4 which is not a bad scoreline from what we were looking at one stage. I thought we really started playing the match after we were 0-3 down which was about 10 mins after half time. After that, fourth quarter was all India with more than 60% possession. We got one back and came close to making it 3-4. Why did we not playing like that from the start ? We were too defensive earlier and allowed Aussies to dictate terms.

I think Raghunath has played better in this tournament and there were fewer alarming errors and Mandeep/ Danish too have been a lot better. I would leave the final judgement on that to SSP though. He is a hard guy to impress. :-)
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Re: Champions trophy Hockey 2016, London

Post by Saniapower »

Varma wrote:
Saniapower wrote:Men vs boys
Are you talking about the forum? :P

- Varma
Australia was not allowing us to play Hockey in the 2nd quarter. I stopped watching after the 2nd quarter.
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Re: Champions trophy Hockey 2016, London

Post by ssp »

I think Raghunath has played better in this tournament and there were fewer alarming errors and Mandeep/ Danish too have been a lot better. I would leave the final judgement on that to SSP though. He is a hard guy to impress. :-)
Hahaha.

You are right, fewer errors from our players and Raghunath was less of a liability -although he did give away a couple of PCs today, but the other 2 + Uthappa, Akashdeep & Talwinder still do not convince me that they are our best options!! Mandeep has fluffed 2 open goals (v Germany & GB) which will probably cost us a place in the final. All of these guys just do not contribute enough to justify their selection. However, we are stuck with them so have to hope they somehow raise their game.
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Re: Champions trophy Hockey 2016, London

Post by PKBasu »

Agree on Raghunath, both as a defender and PC converter.

But we have a mental block against Australia, and become absurdly defensive against them. Normally, we counter-attack immediately after conceding a goal, but today we indulged in long backward passes after the first goal, and conceded a second within two minutes.

We came alive towards the end, especially in the final quarter -- but that was only after the match was effectively dead and buried. Where was this version of Team India in the second quarter??
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Re: Champions trophy Hockey 2016, London

Post by arjun2761 »

Hopefully, we can sneak into the final. Otherwise, looks like we'll be playing Germany for the 3rd as they are destroying Korea 5-0 in their final match.

From press reports, it seems that India came in to defend in the first quarter with all 11 players deep in their own half and only played a balanced offense-defense game in the second half once they fell behind. Perhaps, a good lesson for the Indian team is that sometimes offense is a defense's best friend even if there is an effort to keep numbers behind the ball. I wonder if this is what often happens when we are ahead in the closing stages of many games...
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Re: Champions trophy Hockey 2016, London

Post by ssp »

Germany looked awesome against an admittedly poor Korean team. The Asians reminded me of many Indian performances over the years- weak on the ball, not marking, getting cards and getting all the bad umpiring decisions!

The final game of the day is underway and Belgium leading 1-0, so at the moment we need a 2 goal swing for either Belgium or GB to deny us a gold medal play off.

2-1 to Belgium at half time, so still ok for us. 3-1 win for Belgium is fine, but 4-2 will see us playing for the bronze. I'm sure there will a few more twists to come in the 2nd half. So both teams need to out score the other one by 2 goals in the remaining 30 mins.

3-1 to Belgium at the end of Q3. Now this is a nervy time. 1 more goal for Belgium and we will be playing for 3rd. Can e have a really quiet/boring 15 mins with no more Belgian goals?

Very nervous 5 mins as GB have taken their keeper off, so any Belgian breakaway is going to knock us out. Belgium have a yellow card so maybe that will hep GB to keep the ball in the Belgium half. 3-2 now. That's still Ok. Another 145 secs... Belgium down to 9. Another GB goal will be fine.
Last edited by ssp on Thu Jun 16, 2016 8:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Champions trophy Hockey 2016, London

Post by Saniapower »

I want a British goal. Done :dance: Now GB playing for India. 2 Min remain. No more British goal. But got 1 more :mad: 3-3. 1 min remains. No More British goal!! Done :bounce: India through :bounce: :dance:
Last edited by Saniapower on Thu Jun 16, 2016 8:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Champions trophy Hockey 2016, London

Post by ssp »

3-3 now. 73 secs for Belgium to hold on. Please hold on you guys.

Yesss. We are in the final. Wow. Thank you Belgium for self destructing!
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Re: Champions trophy Hockey 2016, London

Post by arjun2761 »

Great result for India! We are now guaranteed our best finish ever in the Champions trophy even if we finish 2nd. Also, by my calculations we should be moving up to #5 in the world rankings once the Champions Trophy points are updated....
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Re: Champions trophy Hockey 2016, London

Post by PKBasu »

Fantastic moment for Indian hockey. The Champions Trophy has been an emblem of India's futility in the sport. We finished 3rd in 1982 at Amstelveen, soon after the Asiad final in Delhi where Pakistan humiliated us 7-1. But the Esanda World tournament in Australia followed, where we finished 2nd and then the Champions Trophy result -- the last two glimpses of being a world class hockey nation. Now, 34 years later, we are finally back as a serious world contender in hockey.
The historic importance of this turning point cannot be under-estimated. Thank you, Roland Oeltmans!!

Can we take the attack to Australia in the final tonight and try to win it all?
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Re: Champions trophy Hockey 2016, London

Post by PKBasu »

The Champions Trophy began in 1978, just as India's decline in the sport was setting in. We finished third in 1982, and fourth in 1983, 1996 (in Pargat Singh's heyday), 2002, 2003, and 2004 (Dhanraj Pillay's heyday), 2012 and 2014. (The tournament has gone back to being a biennial event rather than annual, and sadly 2018 is scheduled to be the last running of the tournament just as we've become competitive :( ).

We will be playing our very first final tonight!
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Re: Champions trophy Hockey 2016, London

Post by sameerph »

Wow, great news to wake up to. For years we did not win any medal at an international tournament. Now, we have 2 within last 1 year - bronze at world league in November and now at least a silver here.

Hope yesterday's Q4 performance has given us heart to give a better fight to Aussies in the final.
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Re: Champions trophy Hockey 2016, London

Post by Qualia11 »

Against Australia you have to play confidently.Australia generally applies high press which means that if you defend deep, you will be bullied to make wrong decisions.

Having too many people deep leaves a lot of space in the midfield which they will exploit.

In games like football you can get away by employing tactics like parking the bus but doesn't work in hockey
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Re: Champions trophy Hockey 2016, London

Post by fabshab »

What's d schedule start of d final according to IST .......n hoping dat Indians wud play like d Q4 against Aussies for d entire match learning from their mistake of being ovrdefensive :goodluck:
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Re: Champions trophy Hockey 2016, London

Post by prashanthm »

fabshab wrote:What's d schedule start of d final according to IST .......n hoping dat Indians wud play like d Q4 against Aussies for d entire match learning from their mistake of being ovrdefensive :goodluck:
Past mid-night - 12:45 AM IST
8:15 PM London time...
3:15 PM EST...

:goodluck: to India...
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