2023 Men's FIH Hockey Junior World Cup, Malaysia

[SaniaFan]

But where did I ask you to ask the question in Hindi? It is not about language it is about perceived age based on the word used and that generally females and for that matter males also do not want to seen as older person. And I think we are taking it too seriously and specially in the context.

Also don't understand why is Saffron is worried about what people are saying. Different people think differently and that difference will always be there. He should not take this too seriously. There are few people here who do finger pointing. But that is ok, it is their style. No need to take any of these things to heart. In general, it is one of the few forums which is very respectful, non abusive and tolerant of diverse views. Why would you want to leave such a forum for a few posts/posters.

[Atithee]

^^I brought the Hindi example in the discussion.

[ssp]

Saffron, please don't go.

One of the many positives of this form is the civil nature of any disagreements. Why are we arguing over this? Saffron makes a huge contribution to this forum and it would be sad to see him go. He seems to have a great passion for hockey and that alone makes him invaluable in my book!

How about Saffron agreeing to saying ladies instead of girls and the rest of us getting off his back over relatively minor points. As an example, I recall someone accusing him of being pro Pakistan simply because he posted their result ahead of ours! He had to explain that he'd done this because their match was played first!

[sameerph]

Yes, we should always welcome new and enthusiastic posters like Saffron who are prolific in the posts, ignoring and not dissecting some errors which they make. As it is we are only 10-12 of us who are regularly posting on this forum and many of them are just posting as a reaction to others posts. So, someone like Saffron comes and starts posting on new topics and on various sports, it certainly adds value to the forum.

Hope you come back Saffron.

[ssp]

We're being thrashed 4-1 by Spain. Most likely to be playing Netherlands in the semi. Or possibly, Pakistan. We have definitely gone backwards since winning the 2022 SOJC. Pretty much the same players as then, but when it matters, the performances go from bad to worse. This also happened at the 2013 JWC, when we had 5-6 players who were already playing for the senior team. We won the SOJC convincingly and then played horribly to finish 10th in the WC, losing or drawing to teams we had hammered a few weeks before!

Very disappointing result today. Even worse than I feared. The reality is that this u21 squad and the previous ones (since 2016) have not been great. The women's u21s have also been disappointing.

[sameerph]

Yes, 1-4 loss against Spain is quite disappointing. If our under 21 teams in both boys and girls are not so good it is not a good sign for us in terms of future men and women teams. Unless of course selection of these junior teams is not that good and there are some other juniors who are not picked in these teams and are good. or bad coaching is brining them down.

[jayakris]

Who were coaching the junior sides? Indian hockey never does well, unless we have the right coaches. We have only rarely had the right ones.

[sameerph]

Who were coaching the junior sides? Indian hockey never does well, unless we have the right coaches. We have only rarely had the right ones.

CR Kumar and Tushar Khandekar. Have not seen a good Indian coach except Harendra who coached our junior men team to title in 2016. Did I miss anyone else good ?

[jayakris]

^^ Oh, ok. I just saw the scores and comments on the matches, and had to guess that we would be playing under some Indian coaches we have not heard of. The guess was not wrong ... Yes, Harendra is the only name I also remember. And he himself was pretty bad, despite some occasional good results. I think others are even worse. We just need foreign coaches with resumes to do anything notable.

[ssp]

Who were coaching the junior sides? Indian hockey never does well, unless we have the right coaches. We have only rarely had the right ones.

CR Kumar and Tushar Khandekar. Have not seen a good Indian coach except Harendra who coached our junior men team to title in 2016. Did I miss anyone else good ?

Tushar's appointment was baffling. CR Kumar has been around for ages, but no real success under his guidance. Harendra was excellent with the juniors from 2014-2016. Less so with the senior teams. However, I would have preferred him to either of the two mentioned above.

Today, we thrashed Canada 10-1 and will meet Netherlands in the QF. That looks a tough one to win, given how many unforced errors we make. I also feel we perform poorly against well organised European teams as well as Australia and Argentina.

Pakistan drew 1-1 v Belgium to make the QFs too. Well done to them. Roelant Oltmans is in charge for them. They also make silly errors but their tackling in defence was brilliant today. Ours is the exact opposite!

[sameerph]

We beat Netherlands 4-3 ( coming back from 0-2 down) in the QF and make it to the SF.

[ssp]

Excellent win over Netherlands today. Really didn't expect it. In my book, this team has exceeded my expectations in reaching the semi final

Perhaps this win will give our team the boost required to play Germany in the semifinal. We've lost badly to them twice recently. Results are always unpredictable at this level. We did something similar in our 2001 JWC win- beating Netherlands and Germany in successive matches! And also in the 1997 edition too.

Germany beat Argentina 2-1 in the 1st QF and France are 2-0 up v. Australia in the 3rd one!

[Atithee]

France beats Australia 3-2. Is this an upset?

[prasen9]

Rankings in junior hockey, etc. is very fickle because of lack of data and because players play only for a couple of years or so in that level. So, we should be seeing more upsets wrt senior ranking.

[ssp]

France beats Australia 3-2. Is this an upset?

A minor upset as France have been very competitive at U21 level for a over a decade. They beat us twice at the last JWC and quite easily too.

Spain look the best team and should be favourites for the title. I watched them beat a good Pakistan team 4-2. PC conversions decided this match. Some of the PC awards and refusals were questionable. Pakistan, as expected, were at the receiving end on all of these. And got some harsh cards too.



On a separate note, we have lost Saffron Lenin from this forum. His contributions were most welcome.