Hockey at the London Olympics, 2012

[Ankit Desai]

For the results and discussion of the OIympic qualifying event at Delhi (Feb 2012) - see this thread. Moderators
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Hockey India announces list of 48 probables for London Olympics

List of probables:

Goalkeepers: Bharat Chetri, PR Sreejesh, Naveen Kumar, Harmanpreet Singh, Nanak Singh.

Defenders: Sandeep Singh, VR Raghunath, Rupinder Singh, Manjit Kullu, Gurjinder Singh, Harbir Singh, Amit Rohidas, Rahul Shilpkar.

Midfielders: Ignace Tirkey, Kothajit Singh, Sardar Singh, Birendra Lakra, Manpreet Singh, Vikas Sharma, Gurbaj Singh, VS Vinaya, Bharat, Pardeep Mor, SK Uthappa.

Forwards: Yuvraj Walmiki, Tushar Khandker, Shivendra Singh, Danish Mujtaba, Sarvanjit Singh, SV Sunil, Gurvinder Singh Chandi, Pradhan Sommanna, Roshan Minz, Malak Singh, Akashdeep Singh, Chinglensana Singh Kangujam, Ramandeep Singh Nithin Timmaiah, Dharamvir Singh, Mandip Antil, MB Aiyappa Gurmail Singh, Arjun Antil, Damandeep Singh, Prabhdeep Singh, Ranjit Singh, Mandip Singh, MG Poonacha.

Cross posting from other thread posted by Jaydeep.

Now, India Men team has qualified for London 2012, I thought to start new tread to take discussion further.

-Ankit

[ssp]

This the way I see the 2 pools at the Olympics:

Pool A: Australia, GB, Spain, Pakistan, Argentina & Qualifier 3 (probably between Japan/RSA)
Pool B: Germany, Holland, Korea (assuming they win the 2nd qualifier), New Zealand, India & Belgium

I have based the above on the usual FIH seeding system. So the 1st pool will have the following ranked teams: 1,4,5,8.9,12th & the other pool will be teams ranked: 2,3,6,7,10 & 11.

The above depends on Korea winning their qualifier. If they don't and let's say Malaysia get in, we will probably swap places with Pakistan. Whichever way we look at it, there are no easy matches nowadays. Our recent record is abysmal against all teams. However, I must say we looked good against all the teams in the qualifier. In the past we have been pathetic against this level of opposition regularly. Drawing and even losing matches against 'lesser' nations.

[prasen9]

I would take this group rather than the other with Australia, GB and Spain although Spain is not in great form apparently. BTW, don't we already have a London Olympics thread? Maybe these posts should be merged there?

[Ankit Desai]

Pool A: Australia, GB, Spain, Pakistan, Argentina & Qualifier 3 (probably between Japan/RSA)
Pool B: Germany, Holland, Korea (assuming they win the 2nd qualifier), New Zealand, India & Belgium

Nice way to take thread further ssp. However qualifying events are still on and according to FIH world ranking rules (check page 2) there is chance that the nations played in qualifying events will get points. Now, India 1288 is just 4 points below argentina 1292 and 27 points below paksitan. Argentina and Pakistan are done playing in any FIH approved ranking tournaments. South Africa 1130 is also only 20 points below Belgium 1150 and Malaysia 1119 is 31 points. Belgium is also done playing in any FIH approved ranking tournaments.

So basically there is chance to see ranking table will be changed.But yes nice next step to think about road to London 2012.

BTW, don't we already have a London Olympics thread? Maybe these posts should be merged there?

That is in Other Sports/Olympics section. Let's not mix Hockey's section with Other Olympics sports section. There is already request to create separate sections for Other Olympics Sports (I am sure Admins will take a look in to it, if necessary contact Dhruv!), so, lets keep Hockey's road to London 2012 and performance in Olympic separate at least for reference's sack in future. Mixing up will make difficult for the person who wants to refer Hockey or any other sport in future.

-Ankit

[jayakris]

Yes, it's better to have a separate thread for Olympics hockey. We will have one for Olympics tennis as well, later. It is better that way to have the discussions organized during the Olympics time. Changed the title of the thread to specify hockey, and added the link to the Qualifying event also at the top. Jay

[Ankit Desai]

I'm a lot more Indian than half the Indians in India: Michael Nobbs

Which, coach, brings us to the question: Is this the team for London now?

No, no, no. It's a long way off. Clearly the boys that are in the team at the moment have a front-running position because they played well, but once again, we want to make sure we don't miss anybody out, so we got a camp of 48 probables at the moment. We are looking at that, would bring some more kids into it. And we can't change the thing a lot, because you got to remember that six months of really hard work with the group that we got now - the 30 or 40 - we can't replicate that in four months. It's physically impossible to do it - the fitness and everything that we've done with this group, we just don't have the time to retrain another person from outside. If there's an answer how to do that, tell me, but I don't know it. It's impossible.

Got to compare Olympic probables with Olympic qualifiers' probables and see who are new faces and who are left out other than Rajpal and Arjun.

-Ankit

[PKBasu]

Very nice interview with Nobbs, and very illuminating. The Aussies all have great regard for traditional Indian hockey. Add fitness, and you have world-class potential.

[ssp]

I hope Malaysia and Japan are the 2 final men's qualifiers. I suspect Korea will be too strong at next week's Dublin qualifier.

[Ankit Desai]

Pool A: Australia, GB, Spain, Pakistan, Argentina & Qualifier 3 (probably between Japan/RSA)
Pool B: Germany, Holland, Korea (assuming they win the 2nd qualifier), New Zealand, India & Belgium

Looks like ssp was right

Men's London Groups take shape

Group A
Australia
Great Britain
Spain
Pakistan
Argentina
Winner Japan OQ

Group B
Germany
Netherlands
Korea
New Zealand
India
Belgium

-Ankit

[ssp]

I was hoping points would be awarded for the Oly qualifiers as well to enable us to leapfrog into 8th or 9th in the rankings. But it appears as though we will be in Pool B. It's very tough and I can't see us getting into the semis.

I reckon 10 points are needed to get to the semis. In other words, 3 wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat. On paper we have a chance against 3 of the teams-Korea, NZ & Belgium, but our recent record against all of these 3 isn't great. We have made a habit of losing to NZ when it really matters. Belgium beat us in the Champions Challenger final 3 months ago. Korea are always a difficult team to beat, but I feel they have regressed in recent years.

The other 2 teams- Germany & Holland-have us beaten even before we step on the pitch. With our pathetic defensive abilities they will exploit our weaknesses ruthlessly. We haven't beaten Holland since 1996! We probably haven't beaten a full strength German team for a similar period. In fact our last win against them in a world level tournament may have been in 1975! Really pathetic records.

The other group would have given us more hope to qualify for the semis. But our record against GB & Spain is cr*p and a 3 goal defeat against Australia is good going for us nowadays. We have been rubbish against Argentina too!

[Ankit Desai]

I was hoping points would be awarded for the Oly qualifiers as well to enable us to leapfrog into 8th or 9th in the rankings. But it appears as though we will be in Pool B. It's very tough and I can't see us getting into the semis.

I was hoping it too. I hope they won't come up with revised group by the end of 3rd OQ. Otherwise their ranking chart clearly talks about point should be awarded for Olympic as well Olympic qualifier.

The other 2 teams- Germany & Holland-have us beaten even before we step on the pitch. With our pathetic defensive abilities they will exploit our weaknesses ruthlessly. We haven't beaten Holland since 1996! We probably haven't beaten a full strength German team for a similar period. In fact our last win against them in a world level tournament may have been in 1975! Really pathetic records.

The other group would have given us more hope to qualify for the semis. But our record against GB & Spain is cr*p and a 3 goal defeat against Australia is good going for us nowadays. We have been rubbish against Argentina too!

Future tournaments will give us more clear pictures about where will we stand. I am not seeing much difference as far as final squad is concern. Nobbs strategy is going to be pretty same, attack attack and attack. I would like to see how will he form strategy against biggies in coming tournaments.

If we go by released groups than Germany will be first to be tested in Visa Invitational tournament at London. I would like to see The Netherlands will show up in Spain's tournament. We played pretty much with Korea and Belgium under Nobbs and I would like NZ to be guessing us. If I am not wrong than NZ's Men's national coach is relative to Nobbs, brother in law if I am not mistaken.Both should know each other .

-Ankit

[jaydeep]

Aim is to finish in top six bracket: Hockey coach

"We are still away from where we want to be, but we have taken some huge steps to at least finish in top six bracket in London Olympics," Nobbs said when asked about India's chances in the upcoming sports extravaganza.

Nobbs said vital inputs given by Australian physio David John have made tremendous difference in terms of strength and fitness levels of the players.

[kujo]

Nice article. Surprised to see that Nobbs is setting the bar high. Top 6 in London Olympics would be a good achievement.

While players should always aim high (semifinal says Bharat Chhetri), coach has to set realistic expectations to the media....

[arjun2761]

We have beaten the likes of everyone other than Australia, Germany, and Nethelands in the recent past. Assuming that our team is improved and at least significantly fitter (and with a couple of lethal PC scorers) a top-6 finish seems reasonable. A semi-final seems like a reach at this stage given that Germany and Netherlands are in our pool.

However, if we make the semis (which means we are playing really well), we should have a decent shot at beating GB or Spain and win the bronze.

[kujo]

In the league stages, I always discount one winnable match for India. Since they do not, 100% win, all the winnable matches in team games in any championships!

If we are expecting to win 3 out of 5 games, I say, we typically lose or draw one of those 3 winnable matches!! I would be happy to see 3 clear wins and a good fight in the remaining two games. setting a realistic bar to jump over....