2006 Azlan Shah tournament - June 18 to 25 2006

sameerph · Post by **sameerph** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 1:23 pm

Wow, great win for Indian team after a long time. There seems to be definate improvement under Bhaskran. We have beaten both Malasia & South Korea convincingly which itself is a rarity these days.

Go India .

suresh · Post by **suresh** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 1:40 pm

What a relief to see the Indian team win a game that matters. Welcome back to the forum, David -- where have you been?

Suresh

jaydeep · Post by **jaydeep** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 1:44 pm

David, great to hear from u ... So lot of changes in ur professional life also ... Good luck.

About new strategy we discussed in other threadfrom Hindu's article, but it would be great if u give us more info on that ... Its truely informative posts which u and mugu posted.

Jaydeep.

david · Post by **david** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 1:53 pm

THanks Suresh and Jaydeep. Hope I will find enough time again to share my thoughts at least on hockey and motorsports, if not on others. Though I have been writing on hockey, on and off, I have left journalism for good.

I am still in Bangalore and am watching major hockey activity. I now work for an NGO with the project the Avahan AIDS India initiative
as Media coordinator.

I took time off to talk with Baskaran after he was made the coach and also covered PHL in Chandigarh for PHL website and did press realeases for the organisers. I was thrilled to see many papers from NE to Kerala to Punjab use my press notes which I never experienced as a journo with a paper.

mugu · Post by **mugu** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 2:06 pm

Nice to see you back here David. Didn't realise you had quit journalism since even after the break from Express saw your reports on the PHL website.
Would be keen to get your inputs on Baskaran and this new-look Indian team.

gbelday · Post by **gbelday** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 2:36 pm

Welcome back David! Good to read your posts again!

That is a pretty decent win against Korea. Hopefully, the momentum is with our team! Go get that title now

suresh · Post by **suresh** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 2:36 pm

David,
It's a pity that you left journalism. However, do keep giving us your inputs, especially on hockey and motor sports. People like you and Mugu give us laymen lot of insights into sports in India.
Suresh

Post by **jayakris** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 2:50 pm

Yep, good to see you back, david! .. And thanks for thye comments on Bhaskaran.

Looks like the Indian team is certainly responding to Bhaskaran, and he has been doing a lot of new things.

Most importantly, we have started with some good wins. Let us hope for a nice SF and F show. That itself will make Bhaskaran much more successful because it buys him and his ideas more time - nothing succeeds like success, for sure.

Jay

mugu · Post by **mugu** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 2:58 pm

Saw that match till rains came to stop it. Surprising, Korea didn't have a PC (against two forced by India), though they had marginally more circle penetrations than India. For the better part of the first 25 minutes India looked to call the shots.
That the defence did not concede a single penalty corner should be a very encouraging point. Encouraging aalso was the fact that Sandeep Singh was persisted with (in the defence) and came up with some fine free hits (swept) and it was hi pass that Tejbir got in with a firm deflection. Sandeep of course scored the second goal, too. He has to be nursed in the defence to give him the confidence that he requires to be a regular in the starting eleven and Baskaran has done well so far in this aspect.
Baskaran has also done exceedingly well in getting the half backs and withdrawn forwards do a lot of hard running and covering in the defence which was not there in recent tournaments. Particularly pleasing in this aspect has been the performance of Arjun Halappa. The Tushar-Shivendra combination seems to be working well in the frontline though both have missed chances aplenty so far.

Post by **jayakris** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 3:35 pm

mugu wrote:Baskaran has also done exceedingly well in getting the half backs and withdrawn forwards do a lot of hard running and covering in the defence which was not there in recent tournaments.

Do you mean that moving without the ball has become better in our side? Whenever I have seen India pllay, this is what I was most irritated with.

Jimmy said above that ball possession is a good thing and that our abilities in this regard should be nurtured. He is partly right, except that ball-possession, done individually, is often a waste of time. If our movement without the ball is in coordination with ball possession, we would do ten times better. In other words, playing to a plan can be done even in our traditional style using our normally-better individual skills. Hope these things are beginning to show improvements under Bahskaran. Go Coach!

mugu wrote:The Tushar-Shivendra combination seems to be working well in the frontline though both have missed chances aplenty so far.

I have absolutely no problem with all the missed chances, as far as we keep on creating chances! .. How many chances we create should be the yardstick that the coaches should mention, not how many we miss!

Jay

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 3:52 pm

It was a thrill to read that India beat Korea convincingly. Go Indian team.

Nice to hear from David.

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 4:08 pm

Great to hear from you, David. Good luck in your new role.

Oh, how wonderfully sweet the fragrance of victory is in hockey!! It is almost back to those glorious days in 2003, when an Indian Spring seemed to be in the air in the hockey world -- when we conquered Asia, then won the Afro-Asian Games, and almost had Holland defeated in the first game of the Champions Trophy in Holland...

There can be no doubt now that Bhaskaran's strategic mind is beginning to gradually revive this team and rekindle India's latent hockey abilities. I couldn't go to Bukit Jalil stadium today (and the rest of the week is building to a crescendo of rising busy-ness at work, so I may even not be able to make the SF and final, in which India will no doubt play!). But this report from Rediff clearly suggests that clever play is what ensured India's dominance:

http://in.rediff.com/sports/2006/jun/21azlan.htm

Delicious indeed is the sweet smell of victory!!! India beats Malaysia 5-2, and then wallops Korea 3-0, after the Koreans themselves have beaten Australia by a similar score. Somehow there is something in Malaysia that brings out the best in Indian sports. It was here that India won the World Cup in 1975 through the heroics of Aslam Sher Khan (in the semifinal) and Surjit and Ajitpal Singh in the final. Twenty years later we won the Azlan Shah Cup in 1995, the last truly international triumph for Indian hockey (apart from Asian titles and the lone Afro-Asian one). And it was here that Prakash Padukone won the World Cup of badminton. Here it was too that Ramesh Krishnan came to win two Salem Opens in the late 1980s. Malaysians, at least, think of India as quite a sporting nation (and Sania is a huge favourite here). And of course they love Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan and every Bollywood beauty conceivable...

puneets · Post by **puneets** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 4:16 pm

Great win. Just last week I was discussing Indian hockey scene with a Korean friend of mine. Now I got some ammo.
Good luck for the semis.

ssp · Post by **ssp** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 6:15 pm

Malaysia have drawn 2-2 with Australia. Another surprise result. Malaysia have performed well despite losing so many players through injury.

So India tops the group. Who would have predicted this outcome after our 4-1 loss on the 1st day? I'm glad my earlier predictions started going wrong!!

We have a chance of getting to the final if we meet Pakistan or New Zealand in the semis. Somehow I think we may become overawed if it's the Dutch.

We need to get out of this mentality against the Dutch, Germans & especially the Aussies.

Post by **jayakris** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 6:37 pm

ssp - at this rate you should start predicting really bad stuff for India every time (and I should second your predictions too) .. This is working!

Jay