2010 Hockey World Cup, New Delhi, India

[jayakris]

4-2 was what I predicted. I think that was the level we played at. But for crazy umpires, that would have been the score too.

Not great, but a marginal improvement from before I guess. I would be very happy if we can beat the 4th place team from the other pool and finish #7 .. That was about as good as we could have really expected. We are not a top-6 team. There does seem to be some pieces of the puzzle to mould this team to move a spot or two up to near top-5 but not better. I hope we take those baby steps and slowly get back in world hockey.

Jay

[PKBasu]

Let's just pray that HI doesn't try to get rid of Brasa now. The cess-pit of politics that is Indian sports administration could quickly undo the gradual progress that we have made. I think we will beat either NZ or Korea for the 7th spot. With another couple of months' preparation (and especially working on other attacking moves apart from those sizzling crosses from the side or from far in front of the D), we would have made the SF. (England, by the way, plays exactly that way; it is a hit or miss strategy; they hit this time, we missed more often than not!). We were mighty close to beating England and Spain (although the scoreline in the latter match doesn't show it). Anyway 7th place is atleast back to where we fell to in 1976; since 2004, we have not even been in the top-8 in world competitions, and of course we must remember that we are now ranked #12 because we failed to qualify for the Olympics. This tournament marked serious progress (and the beginning of a modest resurgence) for Indian hockey (however much I hate to admit...).

[arjun2761]

I am not that offended by the crosses from our players. They are not typically wild hits but generally sent in after pretty good buildups with enough time for the deflectors to get into the D. The problem is the coordination between the crosser and deflector(s). This key aspect of modern hockey is something we haven't mastered in that it is something that needs to be practiced and drilled until it becomes instinctive. Right now, we seem to get the coordination right very occassionally. Agree also that we need to blend in the crosses with more skillful circle penetrations which should at least increase the number of PCs we get if not result in more field goals.

[ssp]

Umpiring was appalling as always. So many decisions go against us (& Pakistan). I'm not talking about our disallowed goal today. There were 2-3 PCs we should have got but the stupid umpires simply ignored blatant fouls. Diwakar gets a yellow for tripping a SA player, but Shivendra gets a nasty knee into the face & nothing happens. In my opinion, both looked un-intentional but guess who always gets a yellow. Any 50/50 decision is guaranteed to go against an Asian team. Why?? We are losing anyway, why the hell do these gora shitfaces have to rub our noses in the dirt? Hate this racist rubbish.

I have said it several times before, but if the FIH are serious about 'reviving' our hockey fortunes....please give us fair umpiring for a start, forget about anything else. Pakistan too had bad decisions in their game against Australia. I have seen rough, physical tackles from gora teams that go unpunished (not even a foul) but an Asian player is always given a green or a yellow (depending on the score).

India should have beaten SA by 2-3 goals. They didn't do so because our forwards were really poor today. They lost the ball stupidly and did not show any skills to create an opening (Sarwanjit & Shivendra to a lesser extent, were the exception). 2 quality forwards and a drag-flicker who delivered even a 40% conversion rate would have made a lot of difference to our fortunes at this WC. We also continued our tradition of giving away at least 2 goals due to elementary errors by the defenders or the keeper.

Sounds like a simple remedy. Get your defence disciplined and focussed for the whole 70 mins, get quality forwards & an effective PC expert. We can't get all of these at one time. We haven't been able to do this for 35 years.

We didn't press high up the field to induce a turnover as the SA defenders are prone to making errors under pressure. Brasa insisted on playing Chandi most of the time. This guy & Prabhjot must be the worst 2 players in the whole tournament. Sarwanjit looks so much better, yet he warms the bench for most of the match. Danish Mujtaba too looks a decent player. I'm sure we have many, many better options than Chandi, Prabhjot & Rajpal. Remember this team was beaten by a 'combined' Indian Oil team in the build up matches.

[Rajiv]

thanks Sardara Satinder Paaji (ssp) your reports have been very focussed , precise and very intresting to read your point of view.

[mugu]

I think both Rajpal and Chandi deserve to be retained in this Indian team. I rate Rajpal as one player who can make a difference to our attacks, no matter how many times he might have missed scoring. We need players to take the ball up and set up goals or earn PCs. Rajpal is one of them. Unless Sardara works his way up, I can't find any other player who can set up a a few good moves. Halappa comes up with a good pass occasionally but he loses the ball inside the rival 25-yard eight out of 10 times. We can keep creating 'manufactured' penalty corners and hope someone will convert them. It doesn't work always as we found out in this tournament. Tushar can also continue to be a good forward, but he was wasted in the midfield. Chandi was prodigal, but he has the talent that could be utilised to the team's advantage. In almost every counter attack in the last two matches, the youngster figured. His trapping is poor and maybe he will require a few more lessons on positioning himself inside the 'D'. Sarwanjit looked good last night. I wish Brasa had used him more in the previous matches. I don't know whether we have a lot of replacements to bring in large scale changes. Prabhjot, Thakur, Sandeep, Halappa, Vikram will have to go. I couldn't assess Shivendra much since he was played sparingly in all the matches. He is a goal poacher and can be useful with penalty corner rebounds.Incidentally, the Indian media, in general, is in agreement that the Indian team under Brasa has done well enough to be complimented. The ex-Olympians have cribbed, but that is to be expected only. Foreign players and coaches have praised Brasa and the change he has brought into this Indian team. We are nowhere near Australia or any top European team, but then no one expected that this team could beat Australia or finish better than sixth, at best. Eighth won't be all that bad.

[jaydeep]

Germany defeated New Zealand 5-2 and qualified for semis for a record 11th time, they only missed in 1971

So for 7-8th position we will face New Zealand or Argentina (mostly Argentina as now they only need win over Canada).

[PKBasu]

Korea beat Holland today 2-1, and only missed qualifying for the SF on goal difference. Argentina leads Canada 1-0 at half-time, so we will probably play Argentina for the 7th/8th position (if the current score stands in this match, because Arg will pip NZ for goal difference).

[Ankit Desai]

FULL TIME CAN 2-4 ARG: Tomas ARGENTO INNOCENTE (ARG) scores another goal, but after the buzzer to leave the final score at 2-3. ARG now play IND in the final 7-8. NZL play RSA for 9th place and CAN take on PAK in the Final 11-12.

so ARG, it is.

Note:- (Added later) They allowed last second goal to ARG so last score lien is 4-2 in favour of ARG.

Ankit

[Prem]

Argentina beats Canada 3-2
So its IND vs. ARG on Friday for 7th place.
India. Hope we round off the tournament on a high with a good win.....

[arjun2761]

Best of luck to India to win the 7th place.

Looks like 12th ranked India will leapfrog Canada, China, and Belgium after the WC. However, if we lose to Argentina, then they leapfrog us to the 9th place. So this match with Argentina is also for the 9th place in the world rankings. Pakistan and NZ will remain in the 7th and 8th spot in the world rankings but we will be pretty close to them on ranking points.

[Saniapower]

ENGLAND IS ONE TEAM SHOULD NOT BE PLAYING IN THE SEMIFINALS. INDIA & SPAIN ARE BETTER THAN ENGLAND BUT UNFORTUNATELY COULD NOT MEKE IT TO THE SEMIS.

[Saniapower]

Argentina will be tough to beat.

[Ankit Desai]

talks are there to sideline sandeep singh and inclusion of Prabodh and VS Vinay. Prabodh as left half and Vinay as forward, So I think chandi will be sidelined too and Chikara will move up !?.

Ankit

[joetraff]

Better Luck next time.
Come on India.

Thanks
Joe