Asia Cup 2022 men's Hockey

[jayakris]

I've moaned long and hard about forgetting about short term gains, but get a good system that is sustainable (unlike the HIL). Stop wasting time and money on too many foreign coaches and spend wisely on improving domestic standards of players and coaches.

But the coach for this tournament was Sardar Singh, right? I think we need foreign coaches. When I saw that Sardar Singh would be the coach for this, I kinda hoped that we weren't doomed. But my hunch was right. We were doomed already

Coaching matters, even if the domestic talent development may be a bigger problem. (But I assume you were not saying that we shouldn't have a national coach who is a proven foreign commodity, ssp)

[ssp]

Yes, coach is Sardar for this tournament. I wasn't expecting much, but that last minute goal v Pakistan has killed off any hopes of some improvement from the players here. 2-3 of them were just way out of their depth (Yashdeep + Manjeet failed to keep possession or pass to colleague almost every time!).

We need coaches at the domestic level that can instil some common sense into our over excited players. Decision making under pressure is always appalling. At every level- men or women! Discipline is also terrible. Unforced errors because of poor basic trapping and passing skills are always more than the opposition.

[Saffron Lenin]

This Asian cup is a wake up call for Hockey management board.....Even 2021 asian championship should be wake up call when we lost to japan in semis when we were not full-strength team....Our bench strength is weak because we had concentrated on core player groups without fixing domestic ( which was a good strategy for Olympics 2020). But it doesn't solve our root problem

[Rajiv]

This is a bit of a pleasant surprise 25 minutes gone and Japan leads Pakistan, 2 nil, they(Japan) need to win by atleast 3 clear goals and then we must score 14+ against Indonesia, which follows after this crucial encounter to have any hopes for semis.

[Rajiv]

Not looking good.. 38 minutes gone 3-2 to Japan

[ssp]

Somehow Japan held on. Pakistan were totally dominant in 2nd half. Pakistan had 2 goals disallowed, one for having 12 on the pitch! And a 2nd for a needless foul on the Japanese keeper. They also missed 3 really clear cut chances.

So, we need a 15 goal win v Indonesia. Unlikely but let's see.

[ssp]

3 goals in Q1. Quite sloppy play and lots of chances missed. PC routine doesn't look too impressive either.

[Saffron Lenin]

India 16-0 Indonesia....we qualify for top 4....wow what a thriller for india

[jayakris]

What??? This was crazy!!!

[Saffron Lenin]

Crazy indeed.

[jayakris]

But it is always sweet to make Pakistan cry!

[ssp]

I decided to stop watching at half time because we weren't playing too well. Indonesia are a really weak team (much weaker than most club sides in Asia!), but we just seemed to mess things up in the circle. However, I was amazed (and delighted) to see the final score. Let's hope we improve and give Malaysia a good fight in the semi final.

Of the newcomers, only Pavan Rajhbar looks a good prospect. Hoping Uttam Singh and VishnuKant put in some good performances in the remaining 2 matches, but not too much promise from the others. Of the experienced players, Nilam Sanjeep Xess has been pathetic. Today he picked up a yellow card with a terrible tackle well inside the Indonesian half! Why tackle on the wrong side there? No threat to our circle and a couple of colleagues were facing the opposition player. This kind of nonsense just doesn't go away. Raj Kumar Pal was pretty poor too.

Coaching matters, even if the domestic talent development may be a bigger problem. (But I assume you were not saying that we shouldn't have a national coach who is a proven foreign commodity, ssp)

Yes, I'm ok with foreign coaches for the main teams -men and women, seniors and juniors- but in domestic hockey we need much better coaches. In today's game Sardar should have tried PC variations because Nilam Sanjeep Xess wasn't going to sore. Luckily, Dipsan Tirkey came to the rescue. It was difficult to find space in the Indonesian circle as they had so many player defending, so the best option was to create PCs and score via variations. With no threat from Indonesia, I'd have moved Birendra into midfield from Q2 onwards. He can control possession and create much more from there than deep defence- again something Sardar didn't pick up early enough.

Sad to see Pakistan eliminated from the WC. I know they have beaten us badly in the past, but as a fan of Asian hockey, it would have been nice to see them qualify. They should have beaten Japan by 2-3 goals at least. Sub-continental madness was in full glory from them today.

[Saffron Lenin]

Now we will play 3 matches in super 4, first with Japan, then Malaysia and then korea.
Hope we will see a good game by India against Japan

[arjun2761]

Good to see India scrape through. Lucky for us that our match was scheduled last, so we knew exactly what we had to do. Still congrats to team Indian for actually going out and doing it.

[PKBasu]

So our second-stringers (or third-stringers?) will get some good international practice, having to play 3 good teams that are ranked well below us internationally now. That is a good outcome in the end. Sardar Singh has already become a coach? That is slightly crazy! I hope Graham Reid is still in charge of the full national side.