Hockey Junior World Cup - 2016

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jaydeep
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Re: Hockey Junior World Cup - 2016

Post by jaydeep »

Heartiest congratulation to our junior hockey team and support staff for lifting the trophy ... Special thanks to our junior coach Harendra Singh for guiding this team ... :clap: :bounce: :clap:

Our boys gave a stunning performance for lifting our 2nd Junior World Championships trophy ... We deserved to lift the trophy after a superb performance in the final ... After 15 yrs we managed to lift the second title and with this, we become first host nation to lift Junior World Championship.

PKBasu wrote:Dahiya in goal, and Harmanpreet in attack seem the big finds.
PKB, Harmanpreet Singh is a defender.
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Re: Hockey Junior World Cup - 2016

Post by Ram »

Congrats to the Junior Hockey Team. Thrilling match ! The boys held their nerve defending well throughout the second half!!
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Re: Hockey Junior World Cup - 2016

Post by PKBasu »

jaydeep wrote:
PKBasu wrote:Dahiya in goal, and Harmanpreet in attack seem the big finds.
PKB, Harmanpreet Singh is a defender.
We need goal-scorers, and Harmanpreet has been the key goal-scorer (mainly through PCs) for our junior hockey side over the past year (in the Asia Cup, Sultan of Johor cup, etc.). That he didn't score any PCs in the final, and we still won comfortably, is a laudable achievement for the side. In fact, from the match reports, it appears that PC conversion was not one of our strengths in the junior World Cup. That we won with a more all-round game is even better news.
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Re: Hockey Junior World Cup - 2016

Post by ssp »

Absolutely amazing performance in the final. We played our best game of the tournament when it mattered. Congratulations to HI, Harendra and all the support staff, because this project started back in 2014. This team has played brilliant hockey in those 2 years. In fact, the performances in the world cup were generally below what these guys are capable of.

We have some brilliant players in this squad and Oltmans will hopefully promote several of them into the main squad.

We won despite very poor PC routines ( about a third weren't stopped properly or the flicks were straight at the keeper) and our best forward, Armaan Qureshi, did not play to his true level.

Makes up for the 2013 disaster when we had 5/6 experienced players from the senior squad, but played really poorly.
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Re: Hockey Junior World Cup - 2016

Post by sameerph »

ssp wrote:
We won despite very poor PC routines ( about a third weren't stopped properly or the flicks were straight at the keeper) and our best forward, Armaan Qureshi, did not play to his true level.

.
True, Arman Qureshi was below par in this whole tournament. However, others in forward line- Parwinder, Siramanjeet and particularly Gurjant made up for that Those 2 reverse hit goals by Gurjant in SF and final were outstanding. The mid field of Harjeet, Santa Singh, Sumit and Neelkanta Sharma were very good especially today.

So, I think at least 5-6 of this side should get into senior team in 1-2 years
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Re: Hockey Junior World Cup - 2016

Post by arjun2761 »

Awesome win by India!! They were clearly the best team in the tournament and they proved it in the final. The basics of the team looks very good and hopefully many of these players will transition to the senior team....
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Re: Hockey Junior World Cup - 2016

Post by jayakris »

I was away for a day and look what we did! Yeah, India!!! Great job, boys.
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Re: Hockey Junior World Cup - 2016

Post by ssp »

This win has made 2016 one of our best years in the last 4-5 decades. This team brings renewed hope that maybe we can become serious contenders at senior level as well. here's my assessment of the team;

Keepers: Dahiya won us the SF, but otherwise had little to do in most matches. Pathak had a difficult 20-30 mins v England and wasn't tried out again. Seniors seem ok in this department for now

Defence: Dipsan, Gurinder and Varun are ready to join Harmanpreet the senior team. All 4 were consistently good (apart from the Spain game) in the tournament and have impressed me in previous HILs.

Midfield: One of the real stars was Sumit. He impressed in the last HIL, and in this tournament he was excellent with his strong runs in midfield and also his defensive work. In fact most of the team worked tirelessly to defend AND attack. I also liked Manpreet's efforts. Previously, I only noticed him when he got a card (!!) but recently he has impressed with his all round play.This kind of attacking and defending as a group was unheard of in Indian teams of the past. So from the midfield, Sumit and maybe Manpreet can join Harjeet in the seniors.

Forwards: still made far too many silly errors and can all play better, as shown by Gurjant in the last 2 games. I'd try out Gurjant and Armaan Qureshi in the seniors.

I have been critical of Harendra's coaching credentials (with the seniors) in the past, but have to praise him for the superb work he has done since 2014 with this group. He has got this team playing 'modern' hockey and cut out the crazy, hurried nonsense that our teams are prone to. Notice how we kept possession and switched flanks when there were no easy route into the opposition D. We also crowded the opposition ball carrier like Australian teams and created numerous turnovers- our 2nd goal in the final came about because of this pressure.In fact, we propbably only showed our true potential in the final and 2nd half v Australia and for about 2/3rds of the England game. In the other matches, we played below par!

I hope the HI doesn't relax now. They should set up another long term plan for the next JWC and keep Harendra in charge. We have squandered U21 successes in the past.
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Re: Hockey Junior World Cup - 2016

Post by sameerph »

True, SSP. Good assessment of our junior world cup winning team. I also found Santa Singh in midfield to be quite skilful. Parvinder and Simranjeet in attack too showed some spark although they were inconsistent.

One weak area was PC conversions where senior team players Rupinderpal and Raghunath have much more power in conversions ( although they are sloths in defence). Due to PC conversion rate, we cannot afford drop both of these from senior team but can certainly do away with 1 of them and bring in better defenders from junior team.

Overall, between senior and junior teams, we have very good talent in defense and midfield. We only need more sharpness in attack where most of the players look clueless while in opponent D. The kind of ruthlessness which Gurjant showed in scoring 2 goals in Semi finals and finals is needed on regular basis.
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Re: Hockey Junior World Cup - 2016

Post by ssp »

Sameer, agree with PC conversions. Not sure why Harmanpreet and Varun had such a poor return from all the chances they got. They have both been prolific in the past 2 years. I feel they were both trying to get maximum power rather than accuracy. We must have messed up about 8-10 PCs by failing to stop the push out.

I'd keep Rupinder Pal for now, but we can't accommodate 2 slow defenders.

I'd rate Nilakanta above Santa, although both played well (again not as well as previous tournaments). Santa picks up too many cards. Let's see how they perform in the next HIL.

Simranjeet and Parvinder are good prospects, but I feel they need to step up their performances to be considered for the seniors. Gurjant and Armaan have more quality and are quick. The weakest forward was Mandeep. His trapping was particularly poor. This is disappointing, given the experience he has with the seniors and multiple HIL appearances. He scored 3 goals but missed several clear cut chances

Fitness, commitment and the intensity of all the players was superb.
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Re: Hockey Junior World Cup - 2016

Post by jaydeep »

ssp, usual spot on assessment of the players.
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Re: Hockey Junior World Cup - 2016

Post by sameerph »

This is a nice interview of Rolent Oltmans on our junior world cup success -

Seniors can learn from our junior world champions, says India hockey coach Roelant Oltmans

How many of these players can make it to the senior team?
Roelant Oltmans: Between 8-12 is what I expect but it depends on couple of other things as well. All of them still have to play the hockey India league. After the Hockey India league we will sit with the selectors to make a new group of probables with whom we will work towards the 2018 World Cup and the Olympics in 2020 so let's wait till that moment to see how many of these youngsters can make it to the senior team.
He is quite upbeat about picking players from this team for the senior team. I hope he has a major say in future selection and the selectors do not keep selecting non-performers.
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Re: Hockey Junior World Cup - 2016

Post by prasen9 »

ssp wrote:Let's see how they perform in the next HIL.
What ssp proposes, Oltmans accepts.
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