FIH Men's Pro League

[arjun2761]

Stunning win by India! India now leads the Pro League on a ppg basis.

[ssp]

Actually, Australia had several new players, but so have we. The difference is their new players have weakened the team whilst our case is the opposite. It's so frustrating that we've wasted 10+ years on Mandeep and Akashdeep who produce nothing against the top teams but will score 2-3 brilliant goals against lower ranked teams and our selectors can't see how s**t their overall play is.

The Egyptian umpire has been excellent, whilst the kiwi (Tomlinson) has been a total s**t. He usually is like this. Australia's 4th goal came off an incorrect PC award for a foot foul that was clearly outside our D. Manpreet got a yellow, whilst a similar Aussie foul in Q1 didn't even result in a green!We had even worse garbage like this in the Germany gamebecause both umpires were biased like only hockey umpires can be

[sameerph]

We are leading 4-2 against Germany at half time today continuing the good work.

[Saffron Lenin]

India beat 6-3 Germany.....now i am dancing

[prasen9]

Lenin dancing wearing a saffron lungi!

[sameerph]

It is amazing to see what we are doing in this pro league without a proper coach. Just dominating Australia and Germany.

[jayakris]

^^^ It has to be because Germany and Australia have sent relatively poor teams with new players.

[sameerph]

^^^ It has to be because Germany and Australia have sent relatively poor teams with new players.

But from what I gather they have not sent poor teams. There are only a couple of players missing from each team and we are also missing a few key players like Hardik Singh was not in the team today.

That is why the wins and the margins are really pleasing.

One big change i see is captain Harmanpreet is back to best form and converting PC at will.

Maybe SSP can elaborate more.

[jayakris]

^^^ If so, it is indeed great news!

[ssp]

Both Germany & Australia have introduced some younger players (something like 6-8 out of their 20 man squads). We have also brought in new blood. Vishnukanth, Rabichandra and Karthi Selvan. The coaches have moved Sumit and Manpreet into defence and this has worked really well. Dilpreet is being played in central midfield (not sure about that move).

We are playing some very nice and (mostly) intelligent hockey. Silly turnovers and unforced errors and less than the norm. Crazy, needless dribbles near our D are still happening but we have got away without being punished too badly.

We have won these 3 matches by counter attacking at speed. The biggest difference is the front line. How long have I ranted and moaned about Mandeep and Akashdeep being utterly useless? I'd add Lalit too. Look at the difference Sukhjeet, Abishek and Karthi Selvan have made. They have speed, intelligence and skills. They can eliminate defenders, finish or at least win a PC. Today, we won without our best player for the past 1-2 years, Hardik Singh.

We also had the 'advantage' of having 2 non white umpires for today's match and they were both excellent. Cards were given fairly and far fewer video referrals were required, unlike our previous 2 games, where our PCs were denied, yet the opposition were 'gifted' them. I think we used the video referral 4x in the Australia match alone. You can guarantee a green or yellow card for one of our players in Q4, especially if we are leading!

There are 2-3 in this team that are not convincing- Raj Kumar Pal, Nilam Sanjeep Xess and Jarmanpreet. I've often said our selections are the first thing we should fix. Varun Kumar had looked unfit for a year, yet we picked him for the WC and left out Simranjeet Singh. We badly needed a 2nd drag flicker at the WC, yet Jugraj wasn't selected.At this level, a team can not carry even 1 passenger, but we always have 3-4 who are not just mediocre, but really pathetic.

[PKBasu]

These performances are really pleasing. Beating Australia for once, and beating the world champions Germany seemingly at will! The only tragedy is that the team is peaking 2 months too late. If only they had done this at the World Cup -- held at pretty much the same venue!

Sadly, we totally flopped when it mattered, but it's great to see the resurgence two months later.

[jayakris]

Sometimes flops like that are needed for shocks to the system. I am glad that we responded by including some newer youngsters in the team.

[Saffron Lenin]

Goal within 2 minutes against Australia!!!!

[sameerph]

Still 1-0 at halftime.

[rajitghosh]

Finally India wins in sudden death. Why couldn't they do this in the World Cup?