2009 Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament, Ipoh, Malaysia

[ssp]

I'm in Ipoh for the weekend. Watched yesterday's games and was very pleased to see us beat Pakistan.

We lined up 5-3-2-1 but there was plenty of interchanging in the midfield but substitutions only affected the 5 forwards. Our play was better than before until the last 5-10 mins when we aimlessly sent aerials straight onto a Pak stick and invited the next attack. Overall the game was rather lacklustre with India making the only meaningful move in the 1st half through Ignace, This move led to a PC and then a stroke. We had more possession and this continued into the 2nd half. Pakistan got their equaliser through a smart move and deflection in the 50th min. The game opened up after this. Prabhjot missed a great chance before a right wing run by Gurvinder got us a PC. The 1st attempt was blocked but the umpire awarded another PC (which was hotly disputed by the Pak defenders) and Sandeep got the winner off this attempt. India got 3 PCs & Pak none! Right at the end Prabhjot missed another great chance.

Apart from the mad panic defending at the end, India played better than Pak. There were a couple of childish flare ups which were,frankly stupidity from both sets of players.

For India, Dilip, Prabodh, Sardara and Gurbaj were excellent. Tushar, Shivendra and Gurvinder did OK. Sandeep was not exposed ( mainly because the Pak attack was pretty ordinary). Ajitesh & Prabhjot lost the ball a lot. Arjun too lost possession or couldn't trap properly. Prabhjot was guilty of giving away a lot os space to the Pakistani right sided attackers, yet he played most of the game.
For Pakistan, only Saqlain stood out. The rest didn't threaten too much.

The 2nd match was well contested and Malaysia were a little lucky to survive at the end. They too resorted to stupidly sending aerials that invited the next attack! Kelvinder Singh and Selvaraju stood out for Malaysia.
I'll try and post again after the final.

[jaydeep]

Thanks ssp for excellent match report.

India defeated them in their game plan as per our coach Harendra Singh.

You said that there was a lot of sledging in the match. In fact, there was talk about junior Pakistan players using abusive language during the four-nation meet recently. Was your team ready for all that?

Any India-Pakistan match is always peppered with heated exchanges. It's part and parcel of the game. But yes, we had planned things out. The idea was to play on their minds. Md Saqlain tried to abuse us and Sardara (midfielder Sardar Singh) gave it back to him. I would say Saqlain lost his cool after that as the Pakistanis made too many unforced errors in the second half. Our gameplan worked. We beat them at their own game.

Were you happy with the tactical play of your team?

Honestly, India-Pakistan matches are more about jigar than tactics. It was literally a semifinal match and we had to win. The boys played from their hearts. It will boil down to tactics in the final against Malaysia.

Dhanraj Pillay is the team's manager. How much has he contributed in the campaign so far?

Dhan is still an active hockey player and played international hockey just a few years ago. He has been majorly involved in team meetings - in strategizing and motivating the boys. He told them in the morning that if an Indian or Pakistani player has not played against each other, he has not played hockey. 'Make it a memorable day', he told them. He was later grinning all through the evening.

Yes, with Dhan around, I'm in a comfort zone.

Would you like to single out players for today's win?

It's a team effort. It's a family - we fight, sort out differences and carry on. The positive thing is that the wavelength is the same. That made a difference today.

I would like to congratulate Indian hockey's 'Wall' Dilip Tirkey for creating a world record for maximum international appearances. If we win the title I would dedicate it to Dilip and SV Sunil. Sunil lost his father midway through the tournament but he has stayed on and he played like a braveheart today. He's a true champion.

Sandeep Singh was kept out of the team for long. What do you have to say about his performance?

He is not only a match-winner but a tournament winner. Those who kept him out earlier were probably vindictive. I'm happy for Sandeep.

[vidhyashankar]

Tats great....Go get the title now...Go India

Its a pity tat there is no live coverage in India... I don know wat the media is doin...Its a real Shame..

[sameerph]

Yessssss. India takes the title beating Malaysia 3-1 in the final.

[suresh]

Congratulations to the Indian team. I look forward to reading SSP's match report. I hope this is a first step towards returning into the top 10.

[PKBasu]

Marvellous achievement. Congratulations to Aslam Sher Khan and his ad hoc committee for delivering the goods despite attacks from all around. But, most of all, congratulations to Sandeep Singh, Dilip Tirkey, Prabhjot Singh, Shivendra Singh, Arjun Halappa and the entire Indian team for restoring a sense of hope -- which has been in such short supply for the sport in India over the past half-decade.

Here is rediff's report:
http://sports.rediff.com/report/2009/ap ... -title.htm

[jaydeep]

Indian team won the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup 2009 beating host Malaysia, this was their 4th title but now after 13 years ... Before this their last title was in 1995 and Indians were runner-up last year against Argentina and also they were ended on 3rd position 3 times in 2000, 2006 and 2007.

In this match Indian forwardline worked as well oiled machine and Indian defence under, world record holder of playing maximum matches now 406, Dilip Tirkey stood firm without giving any chance to Malaysian team to comeback in the match after taking lead.

At the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup 2009, Ipoh, Malaysia

Final - 12th April
India bt Malaysia 3-1

Goal Scored - Arjun Halappa (IND) 8', Prabhjot Singh (IND) 20', Shivender Singh (IND) 41' and Azlan Misron (MAS) 11'

For 3rd position
New Zealand bt Pakistan 2-1

Here is more detailed match report - India beat Malaysia to win Azlan Shah Cup

[jayakris]

Good work, India. Now start beating top-4 teams in the world. Hey, I am never satisfied Jay

[sameerph]

Congratulations to the Indian team. I look forward to reading SSP's match report. I hope this is a first step towards returning into the top 10.

We made our way back into top 10 in the last rankings pubilished. Now, we are at no. 10. Hopefully, we will make a move towards top 5 now. But for that we will have to do well in world cup, champions trophey / champions challange , Olympics & Asia cup. These are the only ones which count for the rankings.

[arjun2761]

Nice job closing out to win the title. You have to beat the mediocre teams to be a good team yourself. Now, hopefully we will be competitive against the top 5-6 sides.

[PKBasu]

The real secret of India's success at the Azlan Shah Cup has to be the presence of Dhanraj Pillay as manager. Dhanraj was an inspirational player, but he was constantly at loggerheads with the old IHF brass precisely because he was so good at motivating the side. I met him at the Bukit Jalil stadium in Kuala Lumpur in 2006: he wasn't in the team, but was still very much there to egg India on. He led India to triumph at the 1998 Asiad, but he and Ashish Ballal were immediately "disciplined" for talking out of turn (Ballal never played for India thereafter IIRC). Then, in 2003, he led India to victory in the Asia Cup (beating the formidable Koreans) and the Afro-Asia Games -- and it seemed India were headed to the medal podium at the 2004 Olympics. But of course, he was immediately dropped from the side, and it was downhill thereafter (despite him being restored to the team just before the Olympics under pressure from the press and public). It is this whimsicality that is hopefully behind us now. If we can put the best team forward, Indian hockey is still in with a chance to compete against the best. There is no doubt that we have the talent, despite the game's gradual death (as a mass sport) in the country.

[prasen9]

This is a good show. But, we will not know if the age-old problems of conceding a goal towards the end, bad penalty corner shooting, generally, bad strategy are gone unless we play any of the top-6 teams. Once India starts winning against the top European teams and Australia, I will celebrate. You could say that I am unreasonably proud of our heritage and believe hockey wins are our birthright and, yes, given the reality, I am a fool. So, for a team that is not even in the top-10, this is good achievement, however, it does not move me that much.

[jaydeep]

I was thinking after our title win that someone will come up with this comment ... But this time none other than Dhanraj Pillay, who in the past was echoing our thoughts of need of foreign coach.

'We don't need foreign coach now'

This win has proved one thing -- we do not need a foreign coach. The team is doing very well under Harendra Singh. I do not see why we should change the coaching staff. Even Ramandeep Singh and Romeo James, the two assistant coaches are doing well. I have always said that we need assistance from a foreigner on certain issues but not a full-time coach. Mr Jose Brasa is a reputed coach but why should we change right now? There is so little time remaining for the World Cup. Let's hope the IOA changes its decision.

[Dennis]

We should first learn to savor the victory, allow it to sink in.....much deserved after a long long time of test and trials. The list of questions to be answered is long and complex. Unless we are willing to get our hands dirty the solutions on paper will only be utopian.

Dennis Fernandes

[jayakris]

There you go. The same old crap. I don't care what the heck Dhanraj has done in the past, but people like him saying that India can become a nation that finishes top-3 in Olympics, World cup or champions without a coach who has been part of any such success or has even been an understudy of somebody who has any resume, is just STUPID. Not after 35 years of ZERO results worth anything.

There, I said it. Dhanraj is being STUPID. Thank you for all you have done for us, and for all the patriotic blood and spirit you have, Dhanraj. But when you say something stupid, we will call you stupid.

If he says that Brasa himself was a stupid pick and that there were better candidates we should have gone after, I would certainly defer to Dhanraj's knowledge of that matter. It is the judgmental statements from Indian "Olympians" and the irrational hope that somehow things are just going to start clicking, that are incredibley stupid. How long can these experiments go on? Over three decades of this crap is not enough? ... It is so frustrating.

I knew stupid statements were about to start - just as I started feeling happy about a good tournament. Sadly, it is my hero, Dhanraj Pillai, who has started it.

Jay