Champions Challenge I 2009 (Argentina)

[ssp]

Here is the team for the 8 nation Champions challenge tournament to be played between 6-13 December in Salta, Argentina.

Goalkeepers: Adrian D'Souza, PR Sreejesh.
Defenders: Sardar Singh, Sandeep Singh, Gurbaj Singh, Bharat Ajitesh Roy, Dhananjay Mahadik, V Raghunath.
Midfielders: Tushar Khandker, Arjun Halappa, Vikram Pillay, Roshan Minz, Danish Mujtaba, Vikas Sharma.
Forwards: Rajpal Singh (Capt), Gurvinder Singh Chandi, Shivendra Singh, Deepak Thakur, Sarwanjit Singh, Mandeep Antil, Prabhjot Singh.


India are grouped with NZ, China & Belgium.The other group comprises Pakistan, Argentina, Canada & South Africa.
The winner qualifies for the Champions Trophy.

Going back to the squad, Prabodh Tirkey and SV Sunil are missing. Are they injured? They have been 2 of our better players in the last 18 months.
Ignace seems to have dropped out of the reckoning. Good to see Deepak Thakur return, but Prabhjot stays!

Brasa has made some changes that I like. He's getting players playing in different positions. Tushar is in midfield & Sardar & Gurbaj are listed as defenders. 12 of this team have played as 'forwards' for India previously. We have 3 PC drag flickers in the squad. Let's hope we get plenty of PCs and concede less than usual.

Given our recent record against NZ, China & Belgium, we will do well to get out of this group.

[jaydeep]

Overall good selection ... Yeah, surprisingly Prabodh Tirkey's name is missing from the squad ... Also interesting to note that Rajpal Singh replaces Sandeep Singh as Indian Captain for this important tournament, though on Canadian tour Basra used rotation policy for captaincy.

Our team will leave for Madrid on November 23 for a one-week training-cum-competition tour en-route to Salta.

BDO Men’s Champions Challenge I - Match Schedule, Salta, Argentina
Sunday - 06 Dec 2009
India vs New Zealand (16.05 hrs local time)

Tuesday - 08 Dec 2009
India vs China (12.05 hrs local time)

Thursday - 10 Dec 2009
India vs Belgium (16.05 hrs local time)

Saturday - 12 Dec 2009
Semi-finals

Sunday - 13 Dec 2009
Final

[Ankit Desai]

Nice to see Deepak back, but I am clue less to see tirkey brothers missing the squad. Inclusion of Deepak will add experience to forward line, he is a calm player.

Good luck to team India, I want to see India trashing China big way. Chinese are getting under my nerve.

India will play Pakistan, Argentina, NZ 3 higher rank teams. Perfect ideal ground for WC practice. If we see past tours Europe tour should be avoided (Or we should avoid playing Spain and NED at that tour then that tour would be ideal tour to build team) because Canada tour was perfect launching tour to build team and than this Challenge I tour as we will play slightly higher rank teams like NZ and ARG. So Brasa was right in way that Europe tour was unnecessary at that time. After Challenge I , we had home series against GER scheduled but that tour got canceled other wise it will be great tour to see our preparation before WC against one of the top 3 team. If i am not wrong there is only one series after Challenge I is some ground test match series against 2-3 team to test our preparation. I think committee should include Brasa when they fix future match series/tours.

Ankit

[Ankit Desai]

India beat South Africa 3-1 in warm-up tie

V Raghunath twice sounded the board
The team coached by Jose Brasa took the lead in the 19th minute through Gurvinder Chandi

Ankit

[jayakris]

Groups and rankings.

Group A: Pakistan (7), Argentina (10), Canada (11), South Africa (15)
Group B: New Zealand (8), Belgium (9), India (12), China (13)

The first day is underway...

12:05 PAK : CAN 2:1 (2:0)
14:05 BEL : CHN 4:3 (1:1)
16:05 NZL : IND -:- (-:-)
18:05 ARG : RSA -:- (-:-)

India leads New Zealand 1-0 in the first half..

R.J.

[ssp]

Just logged on and find Indialeading 1-0. What shall I do now?
I can guarantee a 2-1 defeat if I follow the score....so in the interests of Indian hockey, I'm going away for an hour.
Hope this tactic works.

NOOOO, while I'm typing this NZ equalize...so I'm off

[jayakris]

Yes, ssp, you have too much negative energy .. Go away ..

I am sure we will win this in the end.

Jay

[jayakris]

OK, ssp's ploy didn't hurt .. the match ends in a tie .. 2-2 ..

Considering NZL has been playing well and are ranked 8th, it is a decent start by us. Now beat China and Belgium and make the semis, please.

Jay

[ssp]

Not a bad start for us. We have struggled to beat a full strength NZ team for quite a while, so 2-2 is OK or at least better than a loss. At least we conceded the equaliser with 12 mins to go- again better than conceding in the last 2-3 mins!

We need to win the remaining 2 matches to get to the semis. We recently beat Belgium in a 3 match test series but were thrashed 6-3 in the first match of that series (after leading comfortably at half time). Our recent struggles against China are quite painful too.

I will promise not to follow any of this live. That will be worth 1-2 goals at the very least.

[jayakris]

Pakistan only beat Canada 2-1, while we really thrashed them in their crib, despite being in "experimental mode" .. And Canada was certainly playing hard in the last coulpe of games to avoid a whitewash but we still wouldn't let them. The signs are decent as of now. China has not been playing terribly well lately. We still could struggle against them, as they are always a disciplined side - the kind that our unintelligent-looking teams of the past have always had touble against. Hopefully Brasa has improved that aspect by now.

Jay

[MithuChelu]

Just logged on and find Indialeading 1-0. What shall I do now?
I can guarantee a 2-1 defeat if I follow the score....so in the interests of Indian hockey, I'm going away for an hour.
Hope this tactic works.

NOOOO, while I'm typing this NZ equalize...so I'm off

Hi SSP,

Could you tell me where to witness the live scores as you mentioned above.Please provide the link.

MC

[jayakris]

I was checking the tournament website - http://www.2009championschallengemen.sportcentric.com/
No live updates or commentary/details but they were updating just the score during the match in a box on the front page right top.

Here is their news on India's match against NZL -

Game 3 – New Zealand v. India: 2-2 (half-time: 0-1)

The next game was also a hotly contested affair, New Zealand were immediately on the attack under the impulsion of a very active Ryan ARCHIBALD. However the Indian defense was vigilant and never let the Kiwis really threaten Adrian D'SOUZA in goal. The game continued at a high pace, with neither team able to grasp control of play. Phillip BURROWS had a deflection from close range go inches wide and a hard shot crash on the post, but it is India who finally opened the scoring, by Tushar KHANDKER at the conclusion of a quick counter-attack that took the New Zealand defense off guard.

The Black Sticks besieged the Indian goal in the final minutes of the period but were kept at bay by an Indian defense solidly organized around Sardar SINGH, and half time was reached with the one-goal advantage for India. New Zealand started the second period on the same attacking note, but still could not manage to shake the Indian defense.

It finally took a penalty-stroke in the 47th minute by Dean COUZINS, totally wrong-footing the goal-keeper, for New Zealand to come back on the scoreboard. They had little time to rejoice, as Shivendra SINGH nearly scored on the next attack. His deflection from close range hit the post, but he had a similar opportunity shortly after and this time made no mistake to beat Kyle PONTIFEX in the New Zealand goal.

New Zealand were not down yet and tied once again the game, this time by Andrew HAYWARD on penalty-corner. The final minutes of the game were intense, providing good entertainment for the crowd, but no more goals were scored and the teams

Jay

[PKBasu]

Nice result, in the context of how far Indian hockey has fallen. But we did squander a 1-0 half-time lead, so nothing has really changed yet...

[arjun2761]

Despite the world rankings, we should really be one of the top 3 teams here with Pakistan and Argentina. So anything less than a 3rd place finish would be dissapointing. First target would be to qualify for the semifinals. New Zealand may be the other likely qualifier, so this start is OK.

[ssp]

Mithu: Jay has kindly posted the link for following the matches. The Indian media seem to be ignoring this tournament.

Tomorrow, we play China. We need to win that match to make qualification easier.