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Preparations in full swing for hockey tourney- Junior National Championship

Preparations for the 14th India Junior Men National Hockey Championship are in full swing. The championship will start on September 6.
The best players will get selected for the Indian Hockey Team. As many as 30 teams from all over the state are taking part. The players will be staying at Lovely Professional University. In case extra space will be required, the players will be accommodated at Khalsa College and Sports College.

Surjit Hockey Committee members said none of the teams had been denied participation and teams from almost every state was participating in the tournament

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/jalan ... y-tourney/

Junior Men's Asia Cup has started today. Here's the link to watch the matches live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOXjhuN ... Federation

Hoping for an improved show from us compared to the recently concluded Sultan Johor Cup

After 1st 2 matches, it seems we are no better than the Sultan Johor Cup level of performance.

Today we beat Japan 3-2. We gave away 16 PCs and won only 5! Usual lack of composure in both Ds. Our defenders just can not tackle cleanly and the forwards can't trap the ball or manufacture a PC when there's no clear shot on goal. More worryingly, we didn't show much creativity. After a few square passes, we'd simply throw an aerial or try a hopeful pass. The forwards tended to use their feet for stopping the ball! Japan had enough chances in open play as well to have won this game.

Pakistan look good in the other pool. If we give away this many PCs to them, they will covert 3-4 at least as their drag flicker is Sufyan Khan, who is the senior team's main PC taker and World Junior Player of the Year.

Pool games finished yesterday. We will play Malaysia in one semifinal and Pakistan play Japan in the other. Apart from India, Pakistan and Japan, the field is weak. Malaysia struggled against China and Bangladesh. Korea were surprisingly poor. We beat them 8-1 yesterday. It should have been double figures as we missed several chances and again failed to win PCs when a clear shot at goal was not possible. However, this was our most impressive performance so far.

What is the age limit for this tournament?

The Pakistan PC expert Sufyan Khan looks like a fully grown man in his pictures.
https://www.instagram.com/ptvsports_off ... JtJMupUpK/

Same for the U-19 cricket Asia cup going on right now. But, I’m not sure other subcontinent Asian countries are any better, including India. That’s why I’ve been VERY skeptical about translating junior performance into senior potential for subcontinental Asians in general.

India have started very poorly v Malaysia. Gifted away 2 PCs for not retreating 5m. Just idiotic.

by arjun2761 » Mon Dec 02, 2024 6:38 pm

What is the age limit for this tournament?

The Pakistan PC expert Sufyan Khan looks like a fully grown man in his pictures.

Sufyan Khan is listed as aged 19 for this tournament, but was 20 yrs old for the recent senior team at the Asian Champions Trophy!

3rd PC given away for not retreating 5m. These guys are comical. At the other end, so many misses and poor decision making means we have had 1 PC only. Now a runner broke too early. So only 3 defenders. We survive.

We need another 2-3 goals to guard against the lunacy at the back.
1-0 to us after 23 mins

Half time and it's still 1-0. We should be 3 goals up by now. We have had 1 PC and conceded 3 (all to 5m rule infringements). Gurjot has lost the ball every single time when in a good position. Composure in both Ds is at it's usual Indian level. Tackling is awful all over the pitch. Every 60/40 tackle results in a foul given away.

Malaysia only has to throw an aerial near our D and there's a great chance of a PC.

Q3 going even worse. 4th PC due to the 5m rule again. Lucky escape. Same silly tackles and mis traps continuing. Now we've added silly passes to our repertoire

Now we've added a yellow due to another crazy tackle when we were under no threat.

At last we win a PC and Rohit converts. So many times we could have earned a PC, but our forwards chose to do something crazy or just lose possession. Into Q4 and with a 2 goal lead hopefully, we can cut out the silly errors.

3-1 with 3 mins left. We gave away a PC and then a stroke due to awful tackling. At the other end, we have finally been earning some PCs. However, we have been missing a fair few chances.

Some terrible play by Shardanand Tiwari and we almost concede a 2nd. Shardanand, Manmeet and Gurjot just can not do the basics right. We hold on to win 3-1. This should have been an easy 5-6 goal win. We missed a lot of chances.

On this evidence, I would say Pakistan are slight favourites. They have more skilful forwards and don't make as many stupid mistakes as us. Sadly, apart from Araijit Hundal, none of these U21s seem ready for the senior team.

We're 3-2 up V Pakistan at half time. We have dominated the match but poor finishing has restricted us to just 3 goals. At the other end, Pakistan have made the most of their chances.

Playing much better than yesterday so far.

Q3 not going so well. Gurjot has picked up a needless green card and within 30 secs we concede PC., and sure enough Sufyan equalises. As usual we are so wasteful in attack and pathetic in defence. This is a match we should be 3 goals ahead already.

Q3 was like yesterday. The forwards unable to trap cleanly or getting nothing out of circle entries. At the back it's always jittery, regardless of the opposition. Any aerial is a threat. PCs will decide this game. If we don't improve in Q4, Sufyan only needs 1 chance

We're 5-3 up with 6 mins left. At last we tried a variation and Araijit scored his 4th goal!

I watched for a while in Q1 while we seemed to be totally dominating and came back to see us level at 3-3.

Now, watching again in Q4 and we now lead 4-3. Arijit Hyundal has scored 3 of the goals, he looks good. Dilaraj Singh seems another good player. He created a couple of chances when I watched.

We hold on to our 5-3 lead. Some nice controlled play in Q4.

We totally dominated this match. In patches we played really well. I expected more from Pakistan, but they only had Hannan Shahid as a real threat. He looks a class player.

Araijit is our best prospect. Ankit Pal also impressed. Both keepers also played very well.

When we moved the ball quickly, we were able to enter Pakistan's D fairly easily, but once there, we still did not make enough of these opportunities. However, we need to improve our composure in both Ds to have any chance of success at the next JWC. The other big issue is the terrible tackling. Why do we have to tackle from the wrong side in the opposition's half? At least we didn't gift away too many PCs- unlike yesterday!

Always pleasing to win a final v Pakistan.

Good to see India win! Based on world rankings, we should be significantly better than anyone else in Asia but it's good to see that our next generation is also better than others in Asia in the next generation.

Yes, based on rankings and investment, we should be winning everything in Asia. Which we have been for the past few years, but sometimes not convincingly. That's ok, so long as we win.


Apart from Araijit, I didn't see too many players that are ready for a run in the senior team. He looks a great prospect.

I had a quick look at previous posts on this thread (from SOJCs and Asian championships)and the common theme has been terrible tackling, picking up cards, gifting PCs and doing little with our own circle entries. This was repeated in most matches here. Our players just get too excited and lose their composure and discipline.

The women start their defence of the Junior Asia Cup on Sunday. Hopefully, they will retain their title too.