Asia Cup 2022 men's Hockey

[jayakris]

Yeah, we didn't stink up the place in the end like we initially thought we would. Good to know that even our B-team can tie with Korea and Malaysia. I am also happy to see those two teams doing well. They have not been doing great for quite a while.

[arjun2761]

Yes, if Malaysia and Korea had their top teams, then a draw is a decent result by our B Team.

Of course, what we really need is a top level league with international players, so that our youngsters get used to international quality hockey while they are developing. Ideally, this top level league should be above and beyond the other domestic and state level competitions which we seem to have.

[ssp]

Anyway, I think main purpose of this trip was to groom young talent, not to win the cup. Hope we have found at least 3-4 players worthy of being blooded into full first team.

Yes, this was the aim, but I only saw Rajbar and maybe Vishnu Kant and Uttam as the positives. The latter two were occasionally brilliant but also error prone. None of the others look good enough to be pitted against well drilled European and Australia/NZ. Lots of the usual Indian traits - crazy passes, not keeping possession when leading, picking up cards, unable to make safe passes (on the floor), poor PC routines, dribbling idiotically in defence or midfield, very few outcomes from circle penetrations, soft Pcs conceded and throw in a few goal keeping mistakes.

Not too impressed with Sardar's tactics. I just heard him yelling 'uppar charrho' (push up) repeatedly in the Malaysian game. Did nothing about plugging the gaps in midfield or asking the players to calm down and just keep possession when we were being overrun. Reminded me of Rajinder Singh around 2003/4 when all you could hear was 'hit marro' from one of our sloths in the vain hope the ball would reach pone of our forwards.

Still, we got some decent results in the Super 4s, which I'm pleased about.

[PKBasu]

ssp's description of our coaches' exhortations are classic

[Saffron Lenin]

Pawan Rajbhar is the pick of the tournament...Apart from Vishnukant and Uttam Singh, I also like Yashdeep Siwach and S.karthi....Manjeet is also good player but he did a lot of fouls and always get cards....what is your opinion?

[sameerph]

We beat Japan again to take the third place. Korea beat Malaysia 2-1 to win the Asia cup. In all looks like these 4 teams and Pakistan too were around the same level. I am not sure if other Asian teams were close to full strength and we were playing virtual B team or even less than that than it is a good reflection of our bench strength.

[ssp]

by sameerph » Wed Jun 01, 2022 4:06 pm

We beat Japan again to take the third place. Korea beat Malaysia 2-1 to win the Asia cup. In all looks like these 4 teams and Pakistan too were around the same level. I am not sure if other Asian teams were close to full strength and we were playing virtual B team or even less than that than it is a good reflection of our bench strength.

Yes top 5 teams were pretty even. The stats in most matches between these teams indicated as much. Pakistan were probably good enough for a tp 3 finish here but there madness in the crucial pool game v Japan cost them dearly.

We improved through the tournament and played fairly well in the super 4s. We also had our customary horror game per tournament (5-2 loss to Japan). While I applaud the fact that we are experimenting, it was really silly not to replace Rupinder with a specialist drag flicker. Of the seniors, Sunil and Nilam Sanjeep Xess were poor. Raj Kumar Pal doesn't inspire too much confidence. Dipsan and Birendra were good. Simranjeet got injured early on.

None of top 5 teams at this Asia Cup would beat Australia, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Spain or England. Maybe Korea could get close, but the others would just be brushed aside by the physicality, organization and superior speed of the teams mentioned above. I hope our main team would have won this tournament easily, but since Tokyo, we haven't been that consistent.