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Argentina looked very good against England. Their forwards- Mazilli, Villa and Paredes were fantastic. It will be tough to beat them, but I don't think they are as physical as the Europeans or Australia & NZ.

Going back to our QF win, I was amazed to see us creating so many turnovers and covering our midfield so well. The running and press created by our forwards has been missing for decades and the work rate of Sumit, Manpreet and Chinglensana was crucial. We have 6 of the U21 world cup winners and 2 young keepers so this augurs well for the future.

I have been a fierce critic of Akashdeep for the past 4+ years, but yesterday he looked very good. I liked the way he eliminated players with his skills and passed properly and tackled cleanly to create turnovers. More of this please and I'll stop moaning.

Harmanpreet is a class player. I have been raving about this guy since early 2015 because he has skills, composure, vision and is so calm. If he could just get his PC conversion rate to 1/3, he would be a candidate for world player of the year. Dipsan too has lived up to my expectations. In fact there are 3 JWC winners- Gurinder, Manpreet jnr and Armaan Qureshi- who would strengthen our team.

Let's hope Sjoerd Marijne turns out to be the coach we have been craving for. So far, the results have been good, even if the performances have been a bit inconsistent.

Poor umpiring, that was a clean tackle from Manpreet but instead 10 mins ejection ...

At half-time we r 0-1 down as Argentina converted only penalty corner they earned.

The pitch has puddles of water due to persistent rain which is still on. This has really slowed down the match and the quality of play is not good due to difficult conditions.

Still 0-1 after Q3. We are trying but Argentine defence is strong.

Couple of great saves by Argentine goalkeeper. 84% ball possession so far in Q4 and we are putting a lot of pressure but still a goal down.

It ends 0-1. We were all over Argentines in the last quarter but few great tackles by Argentine defence denied us. Overall, except that one off PC conversion by Argentina nothing much to separate the teams. Good to see such a fight by our team.

Now, go and beat somebody and finish on the podium. These Argentina guys have been top-notch when it comes to finishing first, lately. No wonder they are #1 in the world.

Yes, Argentines seem to have really got much better in last couple of years. They have a lot of guys who are in 30's as against our team where oldest player ( Sunil) is 28 and 7 players are below 23.

Their coach was spot on when he said before the match (as posted by Jaydeep on this page above) that team that defends better will win the SF.

I think we were not that bad in defence too today. Just that their defence soaked up all the pressure that we put on them with crowd support behind us in last quarter. We started slowly and had a lot of problems with wet pitch in first half but seem to have got a hang of it towards the end. I think Akashdeep was pretty good again and narrowly missed 1 chance with a great save by their GK. Mandeep also had some good turns and passes. If these guys can improve their play on regular basis, we have a good team on hand for world cup next year.

That penalty corner was doubtful, clearly not a good decision by the field umpire. When your not sure then why PC.

jaydeep wrote: ↑Fri Dec 08, 2017 2:43 pm Poor umpiring, that was a clean tackle from Manpreet but instead 10 mins ejection ...

I also felt that was but the commentators gave an explanation saying that since its a slide tackle, it should be done without making any physical contact of the player,otherwise its a yellow card and since there was physical contact,the umpire blew it off against India but still 10min is very harsh and proved to be crucial.

The umpire purely went on rule book as he also penalised Argentina by giving another pc, typical German

Very disappointing to lose a semi final, but have to commend the team for fighting hard.

We just didn't have the quality to open up the Argentinian defence. The playing conditions were very difficult and that ruined the spectacle as the ball could not be moved around at speed. The umpiring was to be expected. Manpreet's 10 min suspension was very harsh and the video referrals went against us for the Argentinian PC and that push on Chinglensana in Q4.

I hope we can get 3rd here, but it looks very difficult as we have a pathetic record against Germany & Australia.

We'll be playing Germany for the bronze. Today, they played their hearts out with only 13 players but lost 3-0 to Australia. I think their squad has been reduced due to stomach problems and this doesn't reflect well on the host. Earlier this week, Holland and England had the same issues.

Even with 13 players, Germany will be favourites to beat us for 3rd place

Australia will be the champion.