FIH Men's Pro League 2020

[Sin Hombre]

We are the ones who concede in the last 10-15 mins so a pleasant surprise.

Was reading a Belgian field hockey blog yesterday - they don't like Batra very much (but think people in India like him ) . Also some worries about field hockey getting removed by LA 2028 and replaced by 5s hockey.

[jaydeep]

Another fighting performance by us for winning shoot-out for a bonus point ... So we made it 5 points from a possible 6 points on the opening weekend.
This was a good defensive performance as we played almost all 3rd quarter with 10 players only due to yellow-card ten-minute suspension for captain Manpreet Singh.

[ssp]

Very impressive weekend from our team. I didn't expect us to be picking up 5 points over the 2 matches.

I'll have to defer to Sameer and Jaydeep for an analysis because I only saw the highlights. Maybe Reid is making the difference we have been missing since Walsh was sacked, or perhaps our fitness is at last at the level of the top 4 teams. All I can say is that's been a long, painful wait to beat the Dutch 5-2 and also to see us come back from 3-1 down and score 2 late goals. Stats seem to indicate that these results were no fluke as we were competitive on possession, circle entries, PCs and shots on goal.

Now, we have to hope that Batra will not sack the coach a few weeks before the Olympics

[PKBasu]

This is beginning to look very impressive. Let us hope the Administrators don’t destroy the progress with any impetuous moves, especially against the successful coach and captain.

[srini]

When the team was announced for Pro league, we saw comments in this forum blaming selectors for again picking the same old baggage but they played like world beaters here, See this was what i was referring to in one of my earlier posts...I think nothing changed essentially with Indian team but European teams for some reason have regressed most probably for economic reasons??

[ssp]

Srini, I'm not sure all European teams have regressed that much. Spain have for sure (lack of funds) and possibly Germany (although they are still a quality team), but the Dutch are as strong as before and Belgium are deservedly No 2 in the world rankings -so they have actually improved out of recognition since 2010 or so. GB are also very strong and on their day could beat any of the top 4. We have improved since about 2014. Prior to that we were fairly dumb in our approach and didn't seriously address our weaknesses. We would regularly be thrashed by the Dutch, Germans and Aussies. In the past 6-7 years we've only had a few bad defeats (usually by the Aussies) but indiscipline/panic/collapse (take your pick) in the final 5-10 minutes has cost us dearly in countless crucial matches

I managed to watch the 1st match on www.fih.live. I don't know how because all these matches are blocked here in the UK. It was refreshing to see us play with such intensity, apart from Q2. The Dutch usually cut through our midfield and defence with clever passing at high speed and brilliant individual skills, but in this match we denied space by tackling and hassling them all over the pitch and as a result matched them for almost all the stats. This was a pipe dream for several decades.

I think this is because of improved fitness and cutting out crazy dribbles or slack passing and drastically reducing unforced errors. The players I've been railing against actually proved me wrong. Although, I'm sure that I will moan about them in future because 1-2 good performances are not going to compensate for the years of poor displays. They need to be producing strong performances much more frequently, or make way for alternatives. The Pro League is the perfect competition to keep trying out some new talent. Will our selectors have the sense to do this?

On a more worrying note, we had to make 6 video referrals to get PCs because the Kiwi umpire, Gareth Greenfield somehow never saw Dutch infringements in the circle, yet was quick to award a PC to the Dutch that we got overturned. That is 7 crucial decisions that could have completely changed a 5-2 win into a draw or even a loss. What a surprise

[arjun2761]

Thanks for those links, SSP - they are viewable in the US and are of high quality. Will have to find time to watch them.

Assuming that the teams are playing their best lineups in the Pro Hockey League (and not experimental lineups), these are some of our best results in quite a while and it seems we are a solid top 5 quality team. Agree with the sentiment that hopefully our inept administration does not castrate this progress at least through the Olympics.

[sameerph]

This weekend we play back to back matches at Bhubaneswar against Belgium. Belgium has started the pro league in emphatic fashion too winning both it's matches against NewZeland easily and beating Australia in one match and drawing the other ( winning that too eventually in super tie break). With those results, Belgium has now moved ahead to #1 position in FIH team rankings and they do seem to be the best team in the world right now. So, matches against them will show where we stand.

[srini]

By halftime India was leading 1-0 but Belgium equalised in Q3.India move into 2-1 lead again in Q4 6 minutes play remaining to hold on

[srini]

Sreejesh saves the day for India by blocking the PC in the dying minutes. India wins 2-1 but stats heavily skewed against India 6 shots at goal vs 34 by Belgium.. it’s our day I guess

[ssp]

Didn't get to see the match but seems Belgium dominated, especially in the first half. However, we won!! Amazingly, we didn't concede in the last 5-10 mins. Stats were heavily in Belgium's favour & on another day, we would have lost by a couple of goals. Our keepers and PC defence won us this game.

Belgium are a fantastic team and on current form, the best in the world, so this is a brilliant result. Well done to the team and coaching staff. I'm hoping for another good showing tomorrow.

[jaydeep]

Yes SSP, Belgium were dominating but we defended superbly ... Krishan Pathak, who saved whooping 7 penalty corners in the 1st quarter only, and Sreejesh were too good in front of the goal ... Belgium teams definitely cut above other teams, they played very attacking hockey and I think their circle penetration must be 50+ ... They managed to put continuous pressure but we defended strongly as a unit.

[jayakris]

This is great stuff. Go India!

[ssp]

We are now ranked 4th.
http://fih.ch/rankings/outdoor/#

FIH have adopted a new method used to work out rankings, so I expect frequent changes in future

Jaydeep: how was the umpiring today? Some reports of poor decisions.

[sameerph]

Wow, a win over Belgium. It must have come after quite some time. I could not watch the match yesterday. It does seem that Belgium dominated the match yesterday but our defending was great and we also had some luck. I will not complain and take this type of win.

Belgium will come back hard in today's match and lets us see how we cope up with it.