Hockey at the Gold Coast 2018 - XXI Commonwealth Games, Australia - 5-14 April

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Re: Hockey at the Gold Coast 2018 - XXI Commonwealth Games, Australia - 5-14 April

Post by ssp »

@ssp how is our recent record against NZ? Would be nice if we can get a silver in the men's and at least justify our world ranking.
We beat an almost full strength NZ team a couple of time 2 months ago, but prior to that, we have been pretty poor against them. Our 2 wins in the Azlan Shah Cup in 2017 were against an experimental NZ team. We tend to play below expectations against NZ.

The men's semis are a repeat of 2014 CWG.

Let's hope we play even better than today's performance. We need to cut down on soft PCs conceded. Our defence still looks a bit shaky.
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Re: Hockey at the Gold Coast 2018 - XXI Commonwealth Games, Australia - 5-14 April

Post by ankit1407 »

I thought we were pretty poor in terms of executing plans once inside opposition's 25... All i could see is hopeful crosses and no attempt to really build a circle penetration. I hope we improve on that in SF..
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Re: Hockey at the Gold Coast 2018 - XXI Commonwealth Games, Australia - 5-14 April

Post by arjun2761 »

ankit1407 wrote: Wed Apr 11, 2018 5:28 pm I thought we were pretty poor in terms of executing plans once inside opposition's 25... All i could see is hopeful crosses and no attempt to really build a circle penetration. I hope we improve on that in SF..
That will generally depend on enough players waking up on the right side of the bed in the morning....
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Re: Hockey at the Gold Coast 2018 - XXI Commonwealth Games, Australia - 5-14 April

Post by sanjay5goel »

That will generally depend on enough players waking up on the right side of the bed in the morning....
Or indeed waking up at all .....
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Re: Hockey at the Gold Coast 2018 - XXI Commonwealth Games, Australia - 5-14 April

Post by ssp »

We seem to have regressed somewhat from the NZ tour and a couple of the HWL finals performances. We are relying on hopeful slap hits into the circle and looking for deflections. Most of the better teams will easily cope with this. We need players who can eliminate one defender at least and then

I think we are struggling in the midfield because we have selected only 4 men for this area. These 4 are playing for much longer periods than ideal. The other area of concern is the right half. Marijne is playing Amit Rohidas there, but he is a defender and so we have no real outlet or creativity on the right flank. We have tried several players there, without finding a replacement for Gurbaj. I've also noticed Kothajit's awful habit of tackling with his stick in the wrong hand and often on the reverse side. Our players seem to be beaten very easily because of poor footwork and often lunging in rather than shadowing the ball carrier. In the old days, it was the opponents who looked silly against our players.

We were lucky with the late goals, especially Varun's equaliser. I have seen us lose many times to England/GB in games like this. For a change we were the ones snatching a win with late goals.
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Re: Hockey at the Gold Coast 2018 - XXI Commonwealth Games, Australia - 5-14 April

Post by PKBasu »

All’s well that ends well! After an erratic campaign, we rose to the occasion when it mattered, beat England and knocked out Pakistan. All’s well with the world. Now to ensure that NZ doesn’t become our nemesis again!
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Re: Hockey at the Gold Coast 2018 - XXI Commonwealth Games, Australia - 5-14 April

Post by sameerph »

Our women are tied 0-0 at half time against Australia in the SF.
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Re: Hockey at the Gold Coast 2018 - XXI Commonwealth Games, Australia - 5-14 April

Post by sameerph »

Australia up 1-0 now in Q3. We just packed our defence and still made some mistakes and paid for it.
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Re: Hockey at the Gold Coast 2018 - XXI Commonwealth Games, Australia - 5-14 April

Post by sameerph »

And it remained 1-0 for Australia in the end. We did attack a lot in Q4 but missed couple of half chances which needed to be converted if we had to get back into game.

Anyway, 0-1 loss is not too bad considering that we are ranked 10th and Australia 5th.

We play England for bronze and Australia- New Zealand play for gold.
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Re: Hockey at the Gold Coast 2018 - XXI Commonwealth Games, Australia - 5-14 April

Post by ssp »

Good fight by our team. Heartening to see the huge improvement in their play. Previously, we would lose tha ball after 2 passes or our ball speed was pathetic and we just looked slow all over the pitch. Credit to all the players and coaches for all the hard work they have put in.

I expected us to struggle with the relentless Aussie press and running, but apart from Q3, we coped pretty. Playing with 10 hurt us. Just like the men, we resort to crash balls into the D every time. We have the stick skills to eliminate defenders and at least try to earn PCs. Australia were the better team overall, but we were not far behind and with experience and 2-3 more improved players, we can hope to win matches like this.

We have exceeded expectations but a medal would be fantastic.
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Re: Hockey at the Gold Coast 2018 - XXI Commonwealth Games, Australia - 5-14 April

Post by sameerph »

Our men down 0-2 within 10 mins again to New Zealand. :damn: Second one was a defensive blunder.
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Re: Hockey at the Gold Coast 2018 - XXI Commonwealth Games, Australia - 5-14 April

Post by sameerph »

We pull 1 back with PS goal by Harmanpreet.

Trailing 1-2 at half time.
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Re: Hockey at the Gold Coast 2018 - XXI Commonwealth Games, Australia - 5-14 April

Post by ssp »

Lost 3-2 with usual poor PC conversions and awful blunders. How many times have we done this v NZ (and ohers). A match we should have won comfortably is lost. Keep selecting dross and this is what happens. :damn:
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Re: Hockey at the Gold Coast 2018 - XXI Commonwealth Games, Australia - 5-14 April

Post by sameerph »

Yes, that is a bad loss. New Zealand did not do anything special in that match. We made defensive mistakes and not convert our chances.
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Re: Hockey at the Gold Coast 2018 - XXI Commonwealth Games, Australia - 5-14 April

Post by jaydeep »

In CWG, we played (still playing) erratic and stupid game so somewhat expected (deserving) loss ... Bad, instead of playing for Gold medal, we will be in Bronze medal match ... :damn:
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