Indian Women's Hockey

[ssp]

we lost 2-1 to China in an 8 nation tournament in NZ.
China are ranked higher than us and I watched them beat Australia 4-1 last week! They looked very good. So this result is not too bad, but still would have preferred a draw at least! Our group also has USA & Australia and then we proceed to cross over matches in the QF.
http://www.hockeyfestival.nz/events/the-hawkes-bay-cup/
I hope we can get some decent results, but most likely will lose all our games!

[arjun2761]

In women's hockey, the non-European teams (this tournament) are pretty strong! Placing in the middle of this pack will be a good result for us.

[arjun2761]

India lose to USA 2-4, and are at the bottom of their pool.

[sameerph]

What is happening to our teams when we play Australia ? Now, our women team hold second ranked Australia to a goalless draw in Hawke's Bay Cup.

[Ayush1234567]

What is happening to our teams when we play Australia ? Now, our women team hold second ranked Australia to a goalless draw in Hawke's Bay Cup.

I think they are taking revenge of the Semifinal defeat in Wold Cup.

[ssp]

This draw against the Aussies is a very encouraging result. We play NZ in the QF. That will be a tough challenge. realistically we have a chance of beating Japan (or maybe Korea) only in this tournament.

I think Roelant Oltmans is in charge of our team and I reckon he as got us playing much better than Hawgood ever did Our ladies have had a lot of trouble playing the ball out of defence for ages. We simply whacked the ball traight to an opponent or lost possession after a maximum of 3 asses.Hawgood never ever got this sorted out, but I feel Oltmans has made a start on this weakness.

We have brilliant individual skills but are generally outclassed by physically bigger, faster and better drilled teams. I remember being hammered by 6 or 7 goals in most matches in the 2013 World Hockey league and looking clueless. We were awful in the Champions Challenge and nothing special in the CWG.

I'm pleased to see Hawgood go, but we need a proper, quality coach to replace him (Oltmans is standing in just for this tournament for now). I genuinely believe we can be competitive against 4-10th ranked teams with improved fitness and some tactical discipline.

[sameerph]

We lost 1-4 against New Zeland in the QF.

[arjun2761]

India women beat Japan 3-2 to finish 7th. Pretty good win in which they came back from 0-2 down to win.

Earlier they lost to the US 0-3 to fall into the 7th/8th playoff.

[ssp]

realistically we have a chance of beating Japan (or maybe Korea) only in this tournament.

We managed to get a win against Japan. That is progress from the dark days from 2006 onwards. I expected the other defeats but the draw against Australia was a bonus.

We can't compete with the better teams because of physical and speed disadvantages mainly. However, there are still far too many soft turnovers and we can't play the ball out of our defence with any confidence. We are doing much better things with Oltmans compared to the rubbish under Hawgood. Now, from our 23m free hit, we are passing to the other flank to get past a high press compared to a silly hit straight onto an opponents stick. What we really lack is good ball speed on these passes. Jaspreet would have made a big difference in defence and also for PCs. We also missed Vandana in attack.

Let's hope that the new coach can work on this and other weak points get us even better results in the future.

[ssp]

Our women are touring Argentina for a series of matches against the Argentinian U21s, seniors and Australia.

We started horribly with a 3-0 loss to the U21s, but today drew with the senior Argentina side! Looks like we were leading going into the 4th quarter! Still, very pleased to see this result.

Unfortunately, Hawgood is back on the scene and maybe in charge and Ahrens as his deputy. I have long complained about Hawgood's poor performances, but HI still went back to him.

[ssp]

We finished off the tour with a 1-1 draw against Australia! We lost in a shoot out, but still encouraging results in 3 of the matches.

We started with a 3-0 loss to the Argentina U21s, then drew 2-2 & lost 4-1 against their seniors. This was followed by a 3-1 win over the U21s and finally the 1-1 draw with Australia. Better than I expected, but I'm still unhappy at Hawgood's re-appointment. Can't we get a decent coach?

[ssp]

We have beaten South Africa in a test series over there. The results were 1-0, 2-2 & 3-1 in our favour. That's pleasing and encouraging news.

[ssp]

Our women finish their 8 game South African tour tonight with a game v. Scotland.
Results have been fairly good, but as usual, we contrived to concede a last minute goal to lose 3-2 to Germany in their last match. We led twice in this match.

Previous results were:
1-0 & 2-2 v South Africa
3-1 & 8-0 v South Africa U21
5-0 v Scotland
0-3 & 2-3 v. Germany.

Scotland have sent a young, inexperienced tam, but we have struggled to beat them in the past.

[ssp]

Our women start their Hawke's bay tournament against the hosts in about an hour's time. The matches are being streamed by the NZ hockey site: http://hockeynz.co.nz/Video

I'm hoping for some decent performances, but I suspect we will be beaten easily by the physically stronger teams.

[sameerph]

We lost the first match 0-1. I watched the match from middle of second quarter onwards and must say we were a bit lucky that we did not lose by more goals. NZ were all over us and I think our defenders and goalkeeper were quite good to keep it to 0-1 ( helped also by some poor finishing by NZ). Our players have decent skills in terms of stick work but are too slow to threaten a decent defence. Also, some of the passing errors were awful. They did play better late in the second half but overall NZ were a much better side.