Men's and Women's Hockey World Cups

[ankit1407]

Bel wins 5-1 , so we just need a win to top the group but looking at potential of Ned in QF and Aus in SF .. I would prefer we mess up and finish second in our group ..

[PKBasu]

Belgium beat South Africa 5-1, scoring a goal a second after the final buzzer (which would have made it 6-1).
Since India beat South Africa 5-0, we need to beat Canada by 2-1 or better (i.e., we do need to score 2 goals against Canada) in order to finish at the top of the pool. The first tiebreaker is goals scored (not goal difference). If we win 2-1, we top the pool; we do not (as far as I understand) if we win 1-0. So we have to score 2 goals, and then try to ensure that Canada gets no more than 1 goal against us.
For Canada, any loss less than 0-7 would be good enough to go through ahead of South Africa.

If we win by 2-1 or better against Canada, our quarterfinal opponent will be the winner of the cross-over (PQF) match between Canada and Holland (or Pakistan, if the latter beat Holland tomorrow).

[ankit1407]

Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) goals scored; 4) head-to-head result.
Just looked up and I see above

[PKBasu]

India are up 1-0 after Harmanpreet scored off a PC in the 12th minute. India completely dominated the second quarter but were hopelessly sloppy inside the D.

And now Canada equalise against the run of play. Sloppy sloppy stuff! 1-1

[PKBasu]

India keeps penetrating the circle and then messing up the opportunity, often because one guy goes for glory rather than passing to someone else.

And Chinglesena scores a field goal from a circle melee. 2-1

And now Lalit scores! 3-1

2 terrific goals in 2 minutes!

[srini]

Bel wins 5-1 , so we just need a win to top the group but looking at potential of Ned in QF and Aus in SF .. I would prefer we mess up and finish second in our group ..

If we messup now , we have to play Germany as opposed to playing Netherlands in QF apart from also playing a crossover match which in this freaking results worldcup can’t be ruled out. So I prefer straight topping the group and play Netherlands which on current form doesn’t seem to be playing great as they lost 1-4 to Germany

[PKBasu]

Amit Rohidas scores off a PC. Brilliant deception followed by a rasping shot. 4-1!!

[PKBasu]

Lalit scores another, this time a field goal off a great pass from Sumit. 5-1 India!

[PKBasu]

India thrash Canada 5-1, and top their pool handsomely to go directly through to the quarterfinal! Absolutely sparkling final quarter from India’s strikers!

[PKBasu]

After going 4-1 up, India withdrew Sreejesh and played without a goalie! Varun came on with goalie privileges (impying, I presume, that he could use his feet in the circle/D). It didn’t matter, India still scored a scintillating 5th goal, and never let the ball enter the Indian defensive circle except for a couple of seconds on one occasion with 15 seconds left.

[ankit1407]

Impressive 4th quarter that

[srini]

That also means 17th ranked China and 20th ranked France meet each other in crossover match and the winner meets Australia in the QF. Australia is going to have a smooth passage thru to SF

I expect France would beat China and from results so far, France may not be push overs for Australia( remember the 5-3 result they have against olympics gold medallist Argentina

[PKBasu]

We have to assume that Argentina didn’t intentionally lose to France...

[PKBasu]

If we play like we did in that fourth quarter, we should be playing Australia in the final, and it will be a close match.

India haven’t made a World Cup semifinal since the magic year of 1975 (and of course it was inconceivable that India wouldn’t make the SF prior to that, in the first two World Cups in 1971 and 1973, the second of which I remember most vividly as I had chicken pox and listened to commentary on every one of India’s matches).

So the QF is going to be absolutely crucial. If it is Holland, it would be especially tough, but hopefully it will be Pakistan or Canada...

[srini]

Tp play with India in QF, apart from a win how many goals does Pakistan need in the match with Netherlands