Men's and Women's Hockey World Cups

[ssp]

Had no hope of us beating Spain. Performance has been poor in all matches at the WC, but we seem to be getting worse game by game. Losing 1-0 to Canada in 9-16th crossover match. Only 18 mins remain. Pathetic.

[arjun2761]

Looks like India came back to tie Canada and win in the shoot out! Now they play Japan in the 9-12th round.

Overall, a disappointing performance from the top Asian teams India, China, Japan, and S, Korea who were all in the 9-16th round.

[sameerph]

Yes, we have not won a match in this world cup in normal time. Losses to 5th ranked Spain and 8th ranked New Zealand by 1 goal and draws with 4th ranked England and 11th ranked China and 14th ranked Canada. Overall, we have not shown to be any better than our current ranking of 9 or even a little worse. After olympics we had hope that our womens team has grown close to top 4 level but it seems that it is some time away. Still feel we need a better coach to take us to that level.

[arjun2761]

It seems like the top 3 teams are a bit better but there isn’t much difference between the 4-10 ranked teams.

[sameerph]

We beat Japan 3-1 in our last match to finish joint 9th in this world cup along with China. So, our current ranking of 9 is fair reflection of our ability right now although our expectations were higher after 4th place finish at Tokyo Olympics which was probably a one-off above par performance. Need some better coaching to move up firmly inside top 6 for now.

[ssp]

I don't think our coach is the main problem. Inability to perform under pressure is always a big issue with all our sportsmen and women. The biggest problem at this WC was our poor PC conversions and playing Sharmila Devi as striker. She has speed but gives Mandeep serious competition in (lack of) composure in the circle. Some crazy politics kept Rani out of the team. That's also pretty standard behaviour in Indian team selections.

We need an alternative to Gurjit for PCs and some more self belief in tough matches. I can't work out why we are so rubbish v NZ or England,

[sameerph]

Netherlands went on to win the title beating Argentina in the final. These 2 teams competed in the olympic final too. So, seem to be the best 2 teams in the world at the moment. Australia finished third and they do seem to be the third best too. We had real big win against them in olympics. 4th to 10th seem pretty close.

Commonwealth games will be interesting. There are 3 teams here who finished ahead of here- Australia, England and New Zealand. South Africa and Canada too are decent. So, it will be tough for us to get a medal there.

[prasen9]

We defeated Jamaica in Hockey 5's to enter the quarterfinals of the World Cup. Article However, the defeat to Egypt, close as it was, will perhaps give us a harder opponent in the quarterfinals.