Champions trophy Hockey 2014, Bhubaneswar- Dec. 6-14

[sameerph]

True, he has made our players believe that they can beat teams of this quality. But, full credit for our players ( & to Roland Oltmans too) for coming back in this tournament from losing first 2 matches and particularly in today's match coming from 2 goals down. I liked the way they kept their composure after equalizing and then going into lead. Also, all the players ( even attackers) were there in defense in last few minutes and gave their all to ensure that Belgium do not come back.

India-Pakistan SF on Saturday will be humdinger. The crowd at Bhubaneshwar has been great and they will all be behind us. Great chance to make champions trophy final.

[gbelday]

Awesome!! I hope they beat Pakistan when it matters the most! And then beat Australia in the finals!!

[Qualia11]

I hope India beats Pakistan because this means a lot more for India than Pakistan.

If Pakistan go through,loose tongues like Dhanraj will come back saying that Pakistan won without any foreign coach and without any technical support.

But people like him won see the fact that we have beat World number 1,2,3,4 in this year

[sameerph]

Awesome!! I hope they beat Pakistan when it matters the most! And then beat Australia in the finals!!

Gautam, they did beat Pakistan when it mattered most in the Asiad final (where a direct qualification to Rio Olympics was at stake).

IMO, that was when it mattered more than this one. But, still this only slightly less important than that and any win against Pakistan is sweet.

[Qualia11]

Ah yeah, you're right there.

Asian games matters more than CT

SAI wanted nothing short of gold for India from Terry Walsh.

Terry Walsh personally felt that silver in Commonwealth against stronger sides was a greater achievement but then CWG or CT is not of such a high importance

Champions Trophy is an elite tournament but it happens every year.

[jaydeep]

This great win also means end of Terry Walsh era, though he orchestrated this performance due to excellent coaching.

[srini]

So except for Argentina-Aus match all other 3 quarterfinals can be called upsets.Well, at least it defies all conventional wisdom when a nation which lost 8-2 to england and lost all its pool matches goes on to defeat Dutch 4-2.Considering the 3-1 pool beating Poms gave the Aussies, even the young German side win over england can be termed upset.We on the otherhand lose to Argentina 2-4 and win against Dutch and Belgium. All of this makes little sense unless we start seeing how much difference the 4 quarter format change has brought.I would equate it with the way Cricket became a batsmen oriented game from test format to other formats that kept shrinking the overs.In hockey this 4 quarter format gives the opportunity for any team to play an attacking style of hockey and beat any team on the given day.You really don't have to worry about fitness to play and run for 15 mins when you also have substitutes once you run out of steam.The only person i keep seeing strictly defending goal now a days is only goal keeper. In Asiad i saw even goal keeper was participating in attacks in desperate measures in last 2-3 mins.Many people on the forum seem to be attributing most of the results to Walsh. As i suspected earlier which i am quoting below, it may simply be format change, i really don't think any coach can be bringing so much progress in any team as we are seeing today. Forget about indian team, who is the current coach for Pakistan? Some former Pak Olympian called Shahnaz Sheikh ? Do you think he has the resume to be coach to make Pak deserve this semis berth? Just a day back he was urging india to play bilateral series with them to get them out of the mess after they lost all their pool matches.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1149979/shahna ... tan-hockey
I guess today he will be happily giving interviews to pak media how he coached his team making them best utilise the Asian style of hockey (or what ever he can be smoking at that time)

I think the 1st point carries more weight-age (i would attribute about 80%) than the rest of all factors.Walsh may have helped improving in tactics and strategizing but not to the extent that we see a 180 degrees turn around and india winning a hockey series in Australia.Actually i saw almost the same team losing to Pak a month back in the opening tie of Asian games though in finals they scraped home by penalty hits.So it may not be entirely due to coach and high performance director but just format change tilted scales in our favour.Its well known the fitness levels of asian players are never close to the europeans and aussies. With longer breaks, the fitness used to affect our stick skills usually near the end of breaks...i come to think most of the goals opposition used to score against us were either just before the half-time break or at the fag end of the match which is when our guys were drooping in energy levels.Contrary what many of us fans think the skill level of indian players never probably varied much from the time we ruled the hockey with 6 consecutive golds until the time we couldn't even qulify for olympics. It was astro turf which tilted scales in favor of the west and thankfully now the four quarter format tilts it back in our favor.I just hope FIH sticks with this format a long time in future and asian nations comeback to the levels they used to enjoy in past.

[jayakris]

Thank you, team. Thank you Terry. I never thought I would live to see India making it into the semis of Champions. Wow. You guys believe in yourselves, and believe the coach that put that belief in you.... And thanks Oltmans for being there for all this (What would we do without you?)

Now, go beat Pakistan and make the final. Let's go INDIA!!!

[Qualia11]

Interesting points Srini . It remains to be seen the impact of format change to world hockey.

But FIH has a history of making rule changes in favour of European sides. I'm not talking about AstroTurf because astroturf has helped the game spread to Europe and Australia which would have otherwise remained only within India and Pakistan. But other changes regarding pc and pc defense. They also removed the offside rule which would have tested the skill of the forward.

The reason why they have made this change is because of commercial interests and they see a huge market in India for promoting this sport.

FIH in general have done very little to promote the game. The WC and Olympics gets over in 10 days. I can understand Olympics because it spans over for only two weeks and there are time constraints. In 2002 we had 16 teams and they reduced it to 12. But now they realised that they need to reach out to more countries and are planning to have 16

6 teams in a group and only top two get a chance which means essentially top 4 gets a chance keeping it out of reach of other sides

[PKBasu]

The rule changes have altered the game, but what I found interesting is that there is still ample scope for stick work -- at which the Indians still excel. The (British) commentators were often left breathless with excitement at some of the skills displayed by the Indians.

Without offsides, many goals are scored off opportunistic deflections just in front of goal or goalie: this was how India got the first goal against the Netherlands, and how Belgium got the second goal against us.

Rupinderpal's drag flicks are brilliant: he got the first goal through a brilliant one against Belgium yesterday. The second goal was through a deflection by Uthappa, but all credit to Raghunath for a spectacular long pass from near the half-line (and on the left edge of the field) right into a swarm of Indian forwards in front of the goal. The third Indian goal was beautifully contrived by five forwards relentlessly attacking inside the Belgian D before Akashdeep put in the final touch. But the crowning glory was the final goal, off a rapid-fire counter-attack after Belgium missed a PC, with five Indian forwards again, but facing no more than two Belgian defenders (other than the goalie), combining brilliantly (including a final pass by Sardara Singh) for Dharamvir to finish it off. (If Dharamvir had missed, India would still have earned a PC as Sardara's pass reached Dharamvir off a Belgian leg; in general though, we still earn too few PCs while opponents seem expert at earning PCs against us)!

Almost every goal by India resulted from superb teamwork. Rupinderpal was yellow (?) carded, and suspended for five minutes during which India were down to 10 men, but held the line very well. Amazing and very gratifying performance!!

[Qualia11]

The rule changes have altered the game, but what I found interesting is that there is still ample scope for stick work -- at which the Indians still excel. The (British) commentators were often left breathless with excitement at some of the skills displayed by the Indians.

Which is why I felt astroturf has not "taken the game away" from our hands as many people insist.

There are mixed reactions on this new rule changes in Hockey.

For example, people like Barry Dancer, performance analyst of Australian team feel this format is less demanding.It doesnt test the stamina levels of players because they get a break after 15 mins.

He has also felt that this format of CT is against the ethics of the game because the topper gets eliminated by a team which has not won any matches in group stage

[sameerph]

I agree that CT format is stupid. What is the use of playing group matches if all 8 teams are going to qualify for the QF ? Only 4 teams should qualify directly to the SF as was the case earlier.

As for new 15 min. 4 quarters format, I don't think it is right to say that major part of our improvement under Terry Walsh has come due to this format. We played very well in both Commonwealth games and the Asian games where it was played as per format. So, revival in our play had already begun before the new format became effective.

[PKBasu]

The best aspect of making the SF of the CT is that we are assured of participating in the next edition too. Playing regularly against the top teams is the only way to credibly stay among hockey's elite. I don't think we have ever beaten the world #2 and #4 teams in successive matches since 1976 (except perhaps in 1982 at the CT). This has been a very special week indeed for Indian hockey.

And of course we are going to be much prepared for Rio 2016 too, especially if Oeltman AND Walsh stay involved with the team.

[sameerph]

This has been a very special week indeed for Indian hockey.

These have been very special past 6 months actually for our Hockey. I think better 6 month period for us in many years. CWG silver, AG gold, series win against Australia in Australia and now CT SF. We have beaten NZ, Korea, Pakistan, Australia, Netherlands and Belgium during this period. I think we had not beaten Australia and Netherlands for a long long time and also lost regularly to other teams which we have beaten in these 6 months.

Now, the key is to top it up with 2 more wins in next 2 matches. Go guys.

[Qualia11]

That's what Terry Walsh stressed on process. In this year we have beaten no 1 to 4 .

We lost first two games but beat Holland.

Indians have been so obsessed with the starting game of the tournament that they fail to realize that there are other games ahead.

For example, in Athens 2004 we lost to Holland in the first game but had we not conceded in last minute against Australia we would have had a chance to make it to semis . From them on we lost to new Zealand and finished 7th

This seems to be slowly changing


The next thing is to do this more frequently and consistantly

In 2015, I guess there is a lull period where there is not much of hockey around except perhaps the world league

So this is the time when they can organise more bilateral series with top nations