FIH Men's Pro League

[ssp]

We have 4 more matches left in the Pro league. Away to Netherlands and Belgium. Both will field their strongest teams and let's see how we fare in those games.

Yesterday's game was close. Although we dominated, our finishing wasn't great. Germany had a few chances too.

We have introduced a few new players. Abhishek, Shilanand and Jugraj have been pretty good and have strengthened the team in attack and PCs options. Sukhjeet and Rabinchandra have have been fine too. I'm hoping all of these players get a fair chance to show their potential. There are a few other U21s-Maninder, Sudeep Charmako, Utham Singh, Vishnu Kant and Sanjay- that I'd like to see given their debuts. Perhaps we'll see them at the CWG.

[PKBasu]

What a sight to gladden the heart of a long-suffering fan of Indian hockey. India on top of a world hockey competition!!

https://tms.fih.ch/competitions/1295

We have 27 points from 12 matches, having won 8 of those matches. Admittedly, Holland have done about as well -- 4 wins from 6 matches, but they will need to sustain that win/game record over their next 6 matches to surpass our points total.

[ssp]

Yes, it's good to see us at the top of the table in both men's and women's Pro League.

However, we have been inconsistent and are being flattered by Germany sending a B team recently (6 points ) and relatively easy matches v. RSA and France. We have dropped points with bad losses v France & Spain. I reckon we need 4 points out of the next 4 matches to play off in the final. This may not happen as we're away to the Netherlands and Belgium.

The women too have been helped by playing an U21 German team and 3rd XI side from the Dutch and 6 points by England's forfeit.

[sameerph]

Both our men and women play back to back matches on Saturday and Sunday against Belgium in Antwerp. Tough match for our 4th ranked men against 2nd ranked Belgian mens team while in women our 6th ranked team is ranked 2 places higher than 8th ranked Belgium.

[sameerph]

Our mens team draws with Belgium 3-3 in regular time and win the penalty shoot out to win bonus point.

That is an excellent result against Olympic champions at their home.

[ssp]

Very good result v Belgium today. Didn't see the match, but Belgium had their strongest line up, so very pleased to pick up 2 points. I'm hoping we can put up another good show tomorrow. Then we have 2 matches v Netherlands. Tough ending to our Pro League program. Had we avoided the losses to France and Spain, we could have had a great chance to win this league. Now, it looks like the Dutch are the favourites.

[Saffron Lenin]

I have watched the game..... The whole game was very fast and of very high quality....It genuinely looked like two high quality sides were playing the game

[Saffron Lenin]

It's half time....we are leading Belgium 1-0....

[sameerph]

We lost 2-3 in the end. Still, very happy with these competitive performances in last 2 days against one of the best 2 teams in the world at their home.

[ssp]

Haven't been able to watch any of this weekend's matches, but quite decent showing by our men. After the inconsistent results since Tokyo, I had an uneasy feeling that we might get a hammering from the Belgians. Let's hope for a similar showing v the Dutch.

[kaustav]

Watched the match...India played superb hockey..Its a end to end stuff and hockey was at its best...India even could have won...Still and good result back to back I would say.

[sameerph]

Another good show by our men as they drew with Netherlands 2-2 in regular time although we lost the penalty shoot out to give away the bonus point. I watched the first half of the match and our team was playing as well as Netherlands, in fact was somewhat better. A few years back have not seen our team measure upto these teams like Belgium and Netherlands playing in Europe. So, coach Graham Reid has done something good to our team.

[jayakris]

Yeah, Graham Reid seems to be doing his job.

[Saffron Lenin]

Netherlands in 3rd quarter was superior ...and i think that is what makes the difference

[ssp]

3 good performances over the past 7-8 days.

I watched a replay of the 1st match v. Belgium on https://watch.hockey/.

We matched them in almost all departments, except finishing and PC conversions. It was very interesting to hear our former coach, Sjoerd Marijne co-commentating and explaining some of the finer details that we can't see on TV. He mentioned us not closing down the spaces between our forwards and midfield. This used to be a massive problem that successive coaches didn't understand. He also stressed the need to remain calm, especially when defending near our circle. We gift away too many PCs with needless tackles when in no real danger. We did ok on this issue for most of the match.

I like the fighting spirit, even when behind in closing stages of matches. Also pleased with the reduced number of green and yellow cards. Unforced errors are still high compared to the best teams, but much better than our usual standards.

Now, I'm going to have my customary moan about the 2 players that have frustrated me no end over the last decade. Akashdeep will always be careless with his final pass, finishing or gets dispossessed too easily. He had 2 great chances to win us this match. Mandeep is just pathetic. Can't beat defenders with skill or pace, creates very little but is good at shielding the ball, mis trapping or just losing possession! I think he's selected because he runs around a lot (Marijne mentioned his yo-yo test results as being the best). We need more than that if we are to win tight matches against the top teams.

We have several alternatives to these 2. Really don't understand why the selectors are being so blind!