Men's and Women's Hockey World Cups

[ssp]

Yes Jay, always happens to us...always.

However, if you lose twice to Ireland, you have no business in a WC semi. We had more possession, more PCs, but as is standard for ALL Indian hockey teams...we just can't take our opportunities. How many times have we seen our teams throw away matches that should have been won by 2-3 goals??

We played ok in patches, but just did not score enough goals and still make too many basic errors or gift away possession. I'm not convinced by Marijne coaching skills. We had poor PC options (probably the worst conversion rate) and left too much space on the flanks at times. Ball speed was a bit too slow....but QF is better than I expected!

If we don't win the Asian games, I expect Marijne will be sacked.

[prasen9]

I was itching to say "don't count the chickens.." the last couple of days, but didn't have the heart to kill your excitement, ssp. I too feel terrible. Oh well. This kind of stuff just happens to us. It always does.

In many sports, the #10 team would have only about a 60% chance of beating a #16 team on a particular day and a #11 team, maybe about 55% chance. Assuming these are more or less independent events, then the chances of making the final are possibly low. And, when these things happen, say 40% of the time, we think it always happens! We notice the failures to lower-ranked teams than the successes because, of course, we 100% expected to win. I made up these numbers, of course, because I do not have the hockey scores. Drawing a lower-ranked team after dominating happens. And penalty shootouts are crapshoot anyway. About the "happens to us", notice that the draw opened up due to upsets. So, it happens to others too.

[ssp]

The squad for the C has been announced. As usual we have some weak (hopeless is more appropriate in some cases) players included and I feel we will do well to reach the QF given the generally rubbish year (CT excepted) we have had.

Here's the full squad:

GOALKEEPERS
P R Sreejesh, Krishan Bahadur Pathak
DEFENDERS
Harmanpreet Singh, Birendra Lakra, Varun Kumar, Kothajit Singh Khadangbam, Surender Kumar, Amit Rohidas
MIDFIELDERS
Manpreet Singh (Captain), Chinglensana Singh Kangujam (Vice Captain), Nilakanta Sharma, Hardik Singh, Sumit
FORWARDS
Akashdeep Singh, Mandeep Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Simranjeet Singh

We should have selected better options for Amit Rohidas, Kothajit, Akashdeep & Mandeep at least. Chinglensana had a poor ACT and I'm surprised Vivek Prasad was over looked. Rupinder Pal, Sunil and Ramandeep are the most obvious omissions-although the latter two might be injured. Rupinder Pal's been dropped because of poor performances. I'm in complete agreement on that one. However, the same logic or criteria is not being applied to Akashdeep and Mandeep.

I can't see our forwards doing anything special and PC flicks will be overly reliant on Harmanpreet. Often he fails to get past the 1st runner or flicks straight to the keeper.

[PKBasu]

What are the World Cup dates? Bhubaneswar is the venue, so with a little luck we might finally have a world podium finish for the first time in 38 years.

[jaydeep]

What are the World Cup dates? Bhubaneswar is the venue, so with a little luck we might finally have a world podium finish for the first time in 38 years.

The Men's World Cup 2018 will be played between November 28th to December 16th at Bhubaneswar ... So within a week ...

Our Pool Matches Schedule
Against South Africa - 28th November 2018
Against Belgium - 2nd December 2018
Against Canada - 8th December 2018

[ssp]

Nice 5-0 win over South Africa to start the WC. Belgium beat Canada 2-1. A draw with Belgium might be enough to top the pool on goal difference, but let's see how we perform on Saturday.

Finishing 2nd in our pool won't be a total disaster, but will mean a play off (most likely against Malaysia or Pakistan) and then a tough QF against Holland or Germany.

[sameerph]

Our forward line looked good today-Mandeep,Akashdeep,Simranjeet, Lalit, Dipreet. But, perhaps the SA defence was too weak. They will be tested in the next match against Belgium.

PC conversion did not look good again. 0 out of 4/5 attempts. Chris Ciriello is supposed to be a PC coach, right ? Not much improvement in seen since he joined the coaching team.

[jaydeep]

PC conversion did not look good again. 0 out of 4/5 attempts. Chris Ciriello is supposed to be a PC coach, right ? Not much improvement in seen since he joined the coaching team.

Yes, Harmanpreet Singh's hits were weak or straight forward ... Also our stopper fumbled while stopping the ball.

For me, our game looked dis-oriented ... Usual cases of losing the possession, failing to trap the ball, unnecessary hits inside the D and missed opportunities.

[Atithee]

In other words, we are set up for usual SSP laments in the coming days.

[jayakris]

In other words, we are set up for usual SSP laments in the coming days.

That is the feeling I am getting too

[ssp]

In other words, we are set up for usual SSP laments in the coming days.

Yes, most probably in the very next game v Belgium!

[ankit1407]

Belgium up 1-0 at the end of first Q.. our guys are just too weak on the ball...

[PKBasu]

India still trail 0-1 at half time.

[ankit1407]

Just mindless stuff , no composure once in possession of the ball and just mindless hits.. oh somethings never change ..Cmon guys fight it out in last couple of Qs

[ankit1407]

Much better start but Dilpreet seems wants to score 2 goals a with one shot .. just way too over eager and messes up each and every time ..