10th Asia Cup 2017 - Bangladesh

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ssp
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Re: 9th Asia Cup

Post by ssp »

No review system in Asian hockey 2014, but what the hell was Rupinder doing....why dive in like that. Why??

Amit made a similar crazy tackle that led to the 1st goal and then Birendra and Sreejesh went to sleep for one of the other goals.

Back to our usual standard of gifting goals. At the other end, how many times did we lose possession by mis-trapping or being weak on the ball?? We continue to be crap at Asian level...we have no chance at the world level with such low quality dross. Frankly some of our players were appalling (Dharamvir, Malak, Gurmail, Ragunath and Amit Rohidas).

I bet the coach and players will come out and say we missed some good chances, we were unlucky with the umpiring etc.., but who cares about that. The records will show Korea have 4 Asia Cup wins and we have only 2 still.
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Re: 9th Asia Cup

Post by ssp »

No surprise to see the real culprit for the 4th Korean goal was Dharamvir. He failed to trap an aerial when under no pressure and the ball ended up in our D when Rupinder made the fateful tackle. It was a clean tackle but the idiot Aussie umpire gave a PC. I think this same umpire rejected a PC when Ragunath's drag flick clearly hit the on rushing Korean defender below the knee. From the very next attack Amit conceded a PC at our end and we fell behind.

We conceded goals because of appalling, basic errors from several players. If we have such inadequate guys in the squad, we deserve to lose matches like this. Dharamvir has been in the squad since 2010 CWG. He has been awful almost all the time (losing the ball, mis trapping, fouling needlessly, failing to make simple passes and not falling back quickly when he loses the ball), yet we keep selecting him. Why do we have to handicap our teams with such mad selections. Next we will have Sandeep and Shivendra back! There is a long list of similar nonsensical selections.
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Re: 9th Asia Cup

Post by PKBasu »

It is undoubtedly frustrating to have lost the final 3-4, after having beaten the same Korean side in the pool stage 2-0. The key to the loss, I think, was the second goal -- scored within a minute or so after the first -- and resulting from a lapse of concentration by the Indian defense. It was a Paolo Rossi-style bit of opportunism by the Korean player, but both Sreejesh and the other defender (Amit Rohidas, I think) were caught slightly napping in not deflecting that sharp cross from one corner (just two feet inside the field of play) that surged past all the defenders for the Korean to tap in brilliantly from near the far goal-post.

But India's response in the second half was very impressive indeed. (I recorded the match, but unfortunately my recording ended 10 minutes before the end of the match -- very frustratingly). Both the goals I saw -- from Rupinderpal off a penalty-corner (drag-flick to the top of the unguarded far post of the goal) and from Nitin (from the top of the D, a rasping reverse hit that crashed into the corner of the Korean goal) -- were absolutely brilliant pieces of work. India also dominated possession in the second half, and ensured that the ball was in the Korean half for about 60% of the time. In retrospect, perhaps we did not attack enough in the first half. Sadly, I didn't get to see the exciting final 10 minutes -- when 3 goals were scored, only one of them by us -- but Team India looked very good in what I saw (apart from that terrible second goal in the first half). Sardar is a huge asset, and I was impressed by all the Indian players, including Gurmail (who has speed and great stick skills, albeit occasionally holding on to the ball too long). The defense was solid in most of this tournament (Raghunath was named Player of the Tournament: I saw the prize ceremony live...and Sreejesh was goalie of the tournament, despite the final!). But the lapses in the final were unpardonable, I agree. We need to hold our nerve in the key matches, something that Indian hockey teams have forgotten how to do in the past 35 years (except briefly in Dhanraj's prime).
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Re: 9th Asia Cup

Post by Sin Hombre »

Raghunath and Ragunath are the same player?
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Re: 9th Asia Cup

Post by PKBasu »

Yes, TV was spelling it "Ragunath" but we always use "Raghunath" here...

Anyway, I saw the drag flick by Raghunath that hit the leg of the Korean defender. It should either have been a second penalty-corner or penalty stroke for us, but the Aussie umpire gave the Koreans a free hit instead!! Egregiously bad decision, although the commentators absolved the umpire, saying that at that speed it could have been difficult to tell (and the Korean player had to be stretchered off, so it could be construed as dangerous play!?). Rules are rules; if an oncoming defender uses his legs -- even on a near-suicidal mission -- to defend, the attacking side should receive a penalty conversion opportunity.
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Re: 9th Asia Cup

Post by arjun2761 »

Overall, seemingly more positives than negatives from the Asia Cup. Qualifying (de-facto) for the World Cup was important although credit for that should go to Korea for knocking out Pakistan in the semis.

Overall, we seemed to have won 3 of the 4 halves against Korea including the second half of the final which we won 3-2 despite some poor refereeing. So, our level of play seems to be at the top of the Asian level although we didn't have the Asia Cup to show for it. Hopefully, we can further improve and get a top-6 finish at the World Cup...
Sin Hombre wrote:Raghunath and Ragunath are the same player?
PKB, I saw this as a rhetorical question about the good Raghunath (a la PKB) and the sloth like Ragunath (a la SSP) :D
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Re: 9th Asia Cup

Post by PKBasu »

The organizers of the Asia Cup seemed somewhat in accord with me, as they named Raghunath the Player of the Tournament... :-) :p
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Re: 9th Asia Cup

Post by Sin Hombre »

Thanks Arjun!

That was indeed what I was going for. How can someone be "player of the tournament" while being dismal in someone else's eyes.
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Re: 9th Asia Cup

Post by PKBasu »

ssp is the hockey guru here, so I would normally defer to his opinions -- although he does have rather exacting standards.

I thought the Indian team played a superb second half, and matched Korea through most of the first half. The Aussie umpire made an egregious error that cost us either a penalty stroke or penalty corner, when a suicidal run by a Korean defender (using his legs rather than stick) stopped a rasping Raghunath drag flick that was probably heading straight to the Korean goal. My impression, from watching the match, was that Oltman's presence is having a salutary impact on Team India.
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Re: 9th Asia Cup

Post by ssp »

I feel disappointed with the showing in the final. Korea had to do so little to get PCs. The craziness that engulfs our teams after scoring a goal is appalling. I could see some idiotic error soon as the ball neared our D. Why do our players get so excited? Almost childlike nonsense. Why does this keep happening?

We attacked well in the 2nd half but so what? We still lost a game in which Korea hardly had a clear shot at our goal in open play. All their goals came from avoidable mistakes. How can a team win anything when it gives away 4 goals in a final. This kind of rubbish is a million miles away from the professionalism of the top teams. I will argue that Korea's best players were Amit Rohidas and the 'incomparable' Dharamvir and of course, the Aussie umpire.

This was the one tournament that I was hoping we would win this year (Delhi HWL doesn't count for anything much).
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Re: 9th Asia Cup

Post by PKBasu »

My recording missed the last 10 frenetic minutes of the match, so I will freely admit I probably missed the most egregious mistakes. To go from 2-2 to 3-4 in the last 10 minutes does suggest no reversal of the worst, continuing problem Indian hockey has faced in the past 35 years: the inability to hold a lead, especially in fast-paced matches that are crucial in determining the position in which the side finishes in a tournament. We always panic in these crucial matches, and hopefully Oltmans will last long enough in the job to be able to work on calming the side down to successfully face those situations.
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Re: 10th Asia Cup 2017 - Bangladesh

Post by jaydeep »

The schedule for 10th Asia Cup announced by AHF ... The men's Asia Cup 2017, which will be hosted by the Bangladesh Hockey Federation ... The tournament will take place from October 11 to 22 ... India and Pakistan r in the same group ... The winner will get direct entry into World Cup 2018.

Group A - India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Japan
Group B - South Korea, Malaysia, China and Oman

Program
11th October
India vs Japan (15:00 hrs)
Pakistan vs Bangladesh (17:30 hrs)

12th October
Malaysia vs CHina (15:00 hrs)
Korea vs Oman (17:30 hrs)

13th October
Pakistan vs Japan (15:00 hrs)
India vs Bangladesh (17:30 hrs)

14th October
China vs Oman (15:00 hrs)
Korea vs Malaysia (17:30 hrs)

15th October
Bangladesh vs Japan (15:00 hrs)
India vs Pakistan (17:30 hrs)

16th October
Malaysia vs Oman (15:00 hrs)
Korea vs China (17:30 hrs)

18th, 19th and 21st October
Super four matches

22nd October
Final and 3rd place matches
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Re: 10th Asia Cup 2017 - Bangladesh

Post by ssp »

Looks like no semi finals but top 2 in each pool plays in Super 4s and the top 2 of this group will play the final.

Rather silly format as the winning team may play the same team 3 times (pool, Super 4s and final). I suppose one horrible game may not cost you as badly as a semi final/final format. We usually have at least one inexplicably cr*p game in any tournament. The kind of game where 7-8 of our players forget to pass cleanly, or mis trap or just gift away PCs soon as the opposition gets near our circle ;)
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Re: 10th Asia Cup 2017 - Bangladesh

Post by sameerph »

Following is the team selected for Asia Cup-

Goalkeepers: Akash Chikte, Suraj Karkera
Defenders: Dipsan Tirkey, Kothajit Singh, Surender Kumar, Harmanpreet Singh, Varun Kumar
Midfielders: SK Uthappa, Sardar Singh, Manpreet Singh (Captain), Chinglensana Singh, Sumit
Forwards: SV Sunil (Vice Captain), Akashdeep Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Gurjant Singh, Satbir Singh.


Looks a decent team which should please SSP. :D. Only few player who are marked by him as useless - Utthappa, Akashdeep and Satbir, I think.
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Re: 10th Asia Cup 2017 - Bangladesh

Post by ssp »

Looks a decent team which should please SSP. :D. Only few player who are marked by him as useless - Utthappa, Akashdeep and Satbir, I think.
Yes, those 3 will be are weakest players.
I understand the new coach and HI want to rotate players around and I support this policy. It is a good step, but I'm not sure how good our new coach is going to be. Pleased to see so many of our U21s being given a chance. Also pleased to see Mandeep and Talwinder dropped. Affan Youssef is in the U23 team that will compete in the Australian league. Let's hope he has a great outing there.
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