FIH Men's Pro League

[ssp]

Impressive win v France who are an emerging team. Our press created numerous turnovers. Some lovely play, but also some silly lifted passes which messed up our attacks. The 2 lady umpires were excellent. really made the match more enjoyable because they did their job and didn't bring any bias into it.

We should have won by a bigger margin. Mandeep and Akashdeep scored a goal each but were pretty much at their usual level with trapping ad passing. Shilanand Lakra managed to deflect out a goal bound off (practically) the goal line! We didn't win enough PCs and as usual gave away a few 1-2 too many.

Let's see how the 2nd match v France goes. I say this because we hammered Japan 6-0 at the recent asian Champions Trophy and then lost 5-3 to the same team a few days later.

The new look Dutch team hammered RSA 11-1 in the 2nd match!!

[sameerph]

And we thrash South Africa 10-2 in the second match. Again a dominating performance against decent team.

[ssp]

Big win v South Africa and more importantly, a really good performance. South Africa have regressed with some players retiring and other unavailable.
The 2 new players- Abhishek and Jugraj- have made a good start. We're pressing very well, ball speed, passing and trapping is now at a really high standard. Unforced errors have also been reduced, although we can still do better on this (needlessly lifted passes, dribbling in dangerous positions etc)

Let's see how the 2nd match v France goes because they are a pretty decent team as confirmed by their 2-2 draw with the Netherlands in yesterday's 2nd match.

So far, we seem to have stepped up from the rather inconsistent displays at the recent Asian Champions Trophy. The return of 4 or 5 of the Olympians has helped.

[ssp]

Utterly rubbish display (as expected) v France today. 3-1 down with 10 mins left. PCs are really bad today.

So many of our guys are playing like amateurs. Slow, giving the ball away and losing every 50/50 ball. Sometimes 3 of our guys would fail to gain possession of a lose ball.

No improvement and France will cruise it. Terrible decision making all over the pitch by almost every single player. This is a repeat of the Japan results a few weeks ago.

5-2. Loss. Sort of expected result after I had seen the first 10 mins.

One of those days when everything goes wrong and our players compete for who can make the most silly decisions or the errors. Amit Rohidas was probably the winner of this contest.

[sameerph]

Yes, saw the second half of the match. Our biggest failure was not able to convert any penalty corners. 2-5 looks bad but it was much closer. The last 2 goals by France came in last minute or so.

[sameerph]

We thrashed South Africa 10-2 in the second match today. It was 1-1 till almost close to first half and we really turned it on in second half.

[ssp]

Big wins mixed in with an awful performance in the 2nd French game.

The entire team seemed lethargic and error prone. The French did what any well organized and competent teams do to beat us. Pack their defence, deny easy access to their D and then just wait for an unforced error by one of our players, send a long pass upfield and then one of our defenders will give away a PC or PS. Sometimes, even this is not necessary as our ability to find new, silly ways to gift away PCs is the best in the world. On days like this, our weak players can not be 'hidden' by the collective performance of the rest of the team.

On days like this, our PCs don't rescue us. And more frustratingly, no variations are tried. We could have won this game by cutting out the madness in our defence and just converting 20% of our PCs. I have seen this kind of result so many times over the years. It will happen again.

[ssp]

More pain likely in the next batch of matches, especially as the team selection continues to be terrible. Mandeep & Akashdeep remain and are joined by Jaskaran, yet Dilpreet is in the stand bys and Sumit is dropped. In addition Lalit comes back in. Difficult to understand what the plan is? Are we building towards 2024 Olympics? If so, why are the weaklings still being given chances?

[sameerph]

Superb comeback by us from 1-4 down some time in Q3 to win 5-4 last goal coming with 8 seconds to go. Spain did make a lot of defensive like what we usually do in last few mins but good that we took advantage and intensified pressure on them we saw an opportunity.

[ssp]

Watching us playing some utter garbage v Spain. 3-1 down and every attack by Spain will result in a goal or PC. Spain playing with intelligence. Our guys are making their usual unforced errors all over the pitch.

Harmanpreet gets one back, but unless we keep possession better, we'll concede a few more.

Somehow, we're only 2-3 down at half time. Don't know what's happening with the midfield and defence. Spain are finding their passes way too easily. In attack, we are making a lot of mistakes. This despite not playing Mandeep!

I didn't see yesterday's game, but Spain were 4-1 at one point. I can see why. We seem to be playing like the recent games v Japan and France.

4-3 down with 2 mins left. Usual pattern. Equalize and then gift away a PC with a schoolboy error near our D.

Akashdeep has been atrocious. Even by his own standards. It's going to be 5-3 as more lunacy by an experienced defender and another PC has been conceded and we have no keeper. .

Finished 5-3. No surprise given the number of unforced errors by most of the team. Varun Kumar gave away a PC with unforgivable stupidity (not keeping 5m from a free hit near our D) when it was 3-3 and we were on too. The 5th goal was from a PC conceded for another 5m infringement by Surrender. We had no keeper, so a goal was guaranteed.

We have regressed from Tokyo because we seem too slack all over the pitch. Perhaps the team expect results will come
without putting in maximum effort. To improve from this level looks difficult unless we get rid of the dross. Akashdeep, Mandeep, Jaskaran, Jarmanpreet, Gursahibjit and Mandeep Mor need to be banished for good. Unfortunately, I don't know how we can cut out the lunacy near our own D (like Varun's today) and the uncanny ability to lose any 40/60 or even 30/70 loose balls by not one but 2 or 3 players. The women are 'adept' at this aspect too.

This game would have been won by a more disciplined, focus and more professional team. Karkera let in a couple of soft shots. We gave away silly PCs and at the other end, so many times our forwards simply failed to trap cleanly on their strong side. Or didn't win a PC when well placed in the Spanish D.

[sameerph]

Back to back matches against Argentina this weekend at home.

Yesterday first matched ended 2-2 in regular time but lost the penalty shootout. Did not see the match but we should be winning more of these matches at home. But, I see a lot of changes in our team in these matches. So, it is ok if we are experimenting to find a right combination for Asian Games later this year.

[arjun2761]

Looks like India won the next match against Argentina 4-3. No idea how they played.

[PKBasu]

Mercurial performances by our team, to say the least. Some unwarranted losses and a draw, but a few nice narrow wins too. We are second in the league table, equal on points with Netherlands, who have acquired those points from two fewer matches. We have played 8 matches, won 5, drawn 1, lost 2. Netherlands have not lost any matches so far (having played 6). The next 3 teams behind us (Germany, Argentina, Belgium) have lost 2 matches each too, out of 6 played. The FIH Pro League is proving extremely competitive -- great for making us match-sharp against the top teams in the world. No other Asian team is participating -- so we absolutely must win the Asiad gold without a hiccup. South Africa have lost all 8 of their matches, and don't seem to belong in this league. Presumably South Korea (or perhaps even Japan) will replace them soon.

[sameerph]

We drew with England 3-3 in regular time but won the penalty shootout to gain a bonus point. Watched the second half here and we should have really won in regular time. We were 3-2 up with less than 5 mins to go and England took out their goal keeper. We got a penalty corner and failed to convert that without their GK. And then conceeded a Penalty stroke which led to their equaliser.

[ssp]

Collective madness cost us a win v England yesterday.

We got a PC in the dying minutes with no English keeper. My 'favourite' Mandeep whacked the ball too high into an empty net and instead of going 4-2 up, we ended up conceding an equalizer with 30s remaining. Instead of just keeping possession, Manpreet (with nearly 300 caps) gifted the ball away, and then one of our defenders obligingly gave away a penalty stroke. How many times have we seen this sequence of events, where 2-3 players can not do the most basic things all within a minute. We almost always have way more unforced errors and turnovers than the opposition team. This kind of lunacy will never go away from any of our teams.

I would have preferred the German method of blooding in new players and not worry too much about results in tournaments like these. We badly need to find replacements in a few positions.