Sultan Azlan Shah tournament

[ssp]

Good result v Malaysia today. Just watched the highlights. Standard panic defending in the last few minutes gifted Malaysia a 2nd goal. Otherwise we cr*p with PC conversions- 1 out of 9. Malaysia were poor too, with 1 out 6 or 7. Sumit jnr looks excellent in attack. He was very impressive in his previous appearance, but was banished for a whole year, while Mandeep and Akashdeep remained to show us their 'skills'

[sameerph]

We beat Canada 7-3 today. Again a decent result. Also Korea beats Malaysia 2-1. So, it is confirmed that we will meet Korea in the final on Saturday whatever happens in the last league matches.

[arjun2761]

India crushed Poland 10-0, so the offense has really come alive in the last 2 matches. Korea also beat Japan 4-2, so the two best teams in the tournament will play in the final. Good luck to team India in the finals!

[ssp]

As expected, we lost the final. I saw us leading 1-0 at half time and just knew we would concede and contrive to lose. Pathetic ending, but entirely in keeping with our history. Didn't watch the match so can't comment on the performance.

[sameerph]

Yes, we lost in the penalty shoot out again after drawing 1-1 in full time. We should have won in normal time . But that apart, how many key matches have lost in the penalty shoot out in recent times. Why is Shreejesh considered one of the better goal keepers in the world when he cannot perform when it matters most ?

[ssp]

Reports and highlights seem to indicate a game that we should have won easily was squandered by poor finishing and the incomparable Amit Rohidas gifting the equalizer to the Koreans. After his disgraceful foul in the WC QF, Amit Rohidas deserved to be discarded for a long time. I have moaned about his 'abilities' for several years, yet our idiot selectors insist on keeping him in the team.

I have seen so many games that we should be winning by 2-3 goals ending up in draws or defeats. There is some mental issue with all our teams (and sportsmen/women in many other disciplines) that results in failure in finals or in crunch matches.

In the next squad, I bet Amit Rohidas, Mandeep, Akashdeep and Chinglensana will be in and Sumit Kumar, Vivek Prasad, Dilpreet etc will be out.

[sameerph]

This week's Sultan Azlan Shah cup is currently going on in Malaysia. We are playing a team without 3-4 top players like Harmanpreet, Manpreet, Hardik etc

We had 3 wins and 1 loss so far. 1-0 win over Korea, 4-3 against Malaysia and 3-2 against New Zeland, 2-3 loss against Belgium.

We are second among 6 teams with 1 match to go against Canada tomorrow. A draw in this match will take us to the final.

[sameerph]

14-3 win over Canada in the SF. This team seems to be playing well in this tournament

Final against Belgium tomorrow. We have struggled to put it across against even when we are playing at our best. Lets see what we can do tomorrow

[arjun2761]

Good luck to them to reverse the result against Belgium. If they lose again, it will be tough to call the tournament a success as all the other teams are ranked lower than us.

[sameerph]

We lost 0-1 in the final against Belgium. Belgium pretty much dominated the game and our 2 young goalkeepers made sure that we lost only by 1 goal.

[ssp]

Pretty much as expected. Only surprise is that we made the final as I thought we might struggle v NZ

I'm ok with this tournament as we finally tried out new players. The forward line is probably our best combination (but I expect dross like Mandeep or Gurjot) to replace Karthi Selvan or Shilanand

Midfield was weakened by the absence of Hardik and Manpreet.

Defence looked weak from the outset. But positives were the 2 keepers and Poovanna.