Men's and Women's Hockey World Cups

[sameerph]

So, we will only a need a draw against USA to finish 3rd in the poll. Anyway, knowing our past record of failing in key matches, this is not going to be easy.

[ssp]

We've got the draw we needed so will definitely be in the cross over matches. Just want England to finish 2nd in the pool to complete our best case scenario. Only way we end up 2nd is if England lose by 3 goals or 2-0 to Ireland.

[ssp]

It's worked out well for us. Italy next and if we win that one, it's Ireland in the QF. Both matches are winnable, but we need to improve on the pool matches. This is a fantastic opportunity to progress beyond our wildest dreams

[sameerph]

True, beating 17th ranked Italy and 16th ranked Ireland can get us into a world cup semi final.

However, Italy beat 2 Asian teams- China and Korea at group stage and of course Ireland beat us in group stage. So, it is not as easy as it looks.

[ssp]

Unfortunately, all the Asian teams (including us) have struggled against well organised, fitter and faster opponents. The umpiring has been poor (as usual).
I watched Italy get thrashed 12-1 by Holland. They were totally outclassed, so it's poor from both Korea and China to lose to them. Ireland were outplayed by England but are resolute in defence and are strong on the ball and are physically competitive.
No team can challenge Holland. Australia or NZ/Argentina (if they play to their potential) may give them a reasonable fight, but the rest will be hammered.
We need to improve our play in midfield and attack to have any chance of progressing. PC variations could be our best bet to score.

[PKBasu]

What an astonishing set of possibilities. That first draw against hosts England has suddenly gotten us into a reasonable position to make the SFs. (And if we had held on to win that match, things might have been even rosier...).

[arjun2761]

What an astonishing set of possibilities. That first draw against hosts England has suddenly gotten us into a reasonable position to make the SFs. (And if we had held on to win that match, things might have been even rosier...).

I think if we beat Italy, we will meet Netherlands in the QF, so not an easy path to the SFs.

[ssp]

3-0 win over Italy! Excellent.
It's Ireland on Thursday. We dominated the pool game but (as is usual for all our teams) we contrived to lose. Better performance today and another step up in our play will be need in the QF

[jayakris]

Chak de, India!!!

[Sin Hombre]

I think if we beat Italy, we will meet Netherlands in the QF, so not an easy path to the SFs.

If it was Netherlands, it would have been game over.

[jaydeep]

Yes, an excellent dominating performance by Indian women against Italian women ... Hopefully, we will play with the same intensity and score goals again Irish women in the quarters.

[sameerph]

Yes, watched the match and we really dominated the same. Italy looked nervous. Not sure how they beat China and Korea. But, for once our defence looks really good. We have conceded just 3 goals in 4 matches. The attack needs to improve although there were some really good moves yesterday.

I think we will have a fair chance against Ireland if we play like we played yesterday.

I think by losing to Ireland at group stage which allowed them to finish at the top of our group, we have done a favour for ourselves. Else, we would have been facing England in the QF which on paper at least a much tougher team.

Now, we have to make it count though.

[Sin Hombre]

The draw gets better and better with Spain upsetting Germany.

We (#10) need to beat Ireland (#16) and Spain (#11) to reach the finals of the World Cup.

[ssp]

As expected we f**k up a huge opportunity. Out to Ireland on penalties. Feel terrible.

[jayakris]

I was itching to say "don't count the chickens.." the last couple of days, but didn't have the heart to kill your excitement, ssp. I too feel terrible. Oh well. This kind of stuff just happens to us. It always does.