Asian games Hockey, 2023

[arjun2761]

As long as the replacements are decent players, taking a team of 18 out of the top 24-25 talents isn't bad. In most teams of this size, the top 18 are generally not always available (due to injury, form etc.), so hoping for the best as India is ranked significantly higher than all other teams in Asia.

[Saffron Lenin]

As long as the replacements are decent players, taking a team of 18 out of the top 24-25 talents isn't bad. In most teams of this size, the top 18 are generally not always available (due to injury, form etc.), so hoping for the best as India is ranked significantly higher than all other teams in Asia.

Yes, there are always few players which can be debated for selection! I can understand that. Sometimes, team's strategy is such that a slightly less skilled player may be selected over another ( may be due to experience or coach's confidence etc). But question arises when you didn't select a player whose performance is constantly top-notch throughout the year. For me, leaving behind S. Karthi doesn't make any sense.

[Saffron Lenin]

Men's schedule:

September 24 India vs Uzbekistan 08:45 Gongshu Canal Sports Park Stadium
September 26 India vs Singapore 06:30 Gongshu Canal Sports Park Stadium
September 28 India vs Japan 18:15 Gongshu Canal Sports Park Stadium
September 30 India vs Pakistan 18:15 Gongshu Canal Sports Park Stadium
October 2 India vs Bangladesh 13:15 Gongshu Canal Sports Park Stadium




https://www.business-standard.com/sport ... 326_1.html

[Saffron Lenin]

Women's schedule:
September 27 India vs Singapore 10:15 Gongshu Canal Sports Park Stadium
September 29 India vs Malaysia 16:00 Gongshu Canal Sports Park Stadium
October 1 India vs Korea 13:30 Gongshu Canal Sports Park Stadium
October 3 India vs Hong Kong 07:45 Gongshu Canal Sports Park Stadium





https://www.business-standard.com/sport ... 326_1.html

[prasen9]

An article about our women's team goalie: Bichu Devi

[sameerph]

Mens team has 2 tough matches against Japan and Pakistan. Japan has always done well against us. We need to win one of those matches to go thru to the SF.

Womens team looks to have an easier path to the SF.

[PKBasu]

Well, the Indian men did very well against Pakistan, handing them a 10-2 thrashing -- the biggest margin of victory ever between the two nations in hockey.
And except the last 10 minutes (when India let in 2 goals), the 4-2 win against Japan was excellent as well. They now need to hold their nerves in the SF and final, and come away with the gold sans any hiccups.

[arjun2761]

Yes, the Indian mens team seems a cut above everyone else consistent with their better ranking. Them losing would be a pretty big upset although upsets do happen in sports. Good luck to the Indian team.

[ssp]

I watched a replay of the Pakistan game. Pakistan were terrible. Reminded me of the our performances v Australia over the last 40+ years. Men v boys. Clueless in midfield and defence, aimless dribbling with no outcomes. We had so much space and time. Pakistan's biggest ever defeat.

Today we thrashed Bangladesh 12-0. Abhishek scored a beauty for our 8th goal. It was another no contest.

We play South Korea in the semi and I hope we don't mess up as I've always felt that they are our biggest threat. Let's hope for another good performance from our team.

The women struggled v Korea. Incredibly, we don't have a drag flicker. We'll need 2 big performances to win the gold here. I'm not that confident about that happening.

[arjun2761]

https://www.fih.hockey/outdoor-hockey-rankings

In mens, looks like 3 of the top teams did make the SFs - (India #3, Korea #12, and Japan at #15). Pakistan is #16 and Malaysia #10 were eclipsed by hosts China who are #22..

In the womens, the top 4 teams (India #7, Japan #10, China #11, and Korea #12) made the SFs.

[jayakris]

Going to the 4th quarter, it is only a 4-3 lead over Korea for our men in the SF. We had gone up 3-0, and later to 4-2... but this is making me nervous.

5-3 at the 54th minute... Hold on to the lead, India!

Okay, we get the job done with a 5-3 win. On to the final!!

[ssp]

Good to see us winning v Korea. I was a bit nervous about this one. Japan 3-2 up v China with just 1 min to go. They hold on.

Big game for the women v China tomorrow. Need 2 big results from them.

[jayakris]

Nothing much to separate India/Japan/China/Korea and any of them can beat each others in women's hockey, it seems. Has any of the four looked particularly good this time? If not, I guess the home team are the favorites in such a case.

[PKBasu]

I watched a replay of the Pakistan game. Pakistan were terrible. Reminded me of the our performances v Australia over the last 40+ years. Men v boys. Clueless in midfield and defence, aimless dribbling with no outcomes. We had so much space and time. Pakistan's biggest ever defeat.

Today we thrashed Bangladesh 12-0. Abhishek scored a beauty for our 8th goal. It was another no contest.

I actually watched almost the whole of the India-Pakistan match live (India was up 2-0 when I switched it on). Pakistan were playing like the India of 2004-2015. But it was the Indian team's quality and skill sets that stood out. Beautiful passing and immaculate trapping, a couple of spectacular field goals, 3 excellent PC takers. Only Lalit was disappointing in that match, but it was really heartening to see the quality of the India side -- doing many of the things right that ssp had decried in the past. Harmanpreet seems an excellent leader as well.

I didn't get to watch the SF today against Korea (and didn't even get to watch highlights in the evening despite my best attempts to navigate the SonyLiv feeds). But what was good to see was that we led from the start, and had a 2- or 3-goal advantage throughout (except for a brief interregnum). So we dominated the match. We are a cut above the rest of Asia -- but need to prove it by beating Japan again in the final. We dominated the pool match against Japan, until the silly last 10 minutes of hubris. But we had beaten them in 2018 at the pool stage but lost in the SF. Craig Fulton is doing some magic with this side -- and I hope his good work culminates in a gold (and an automatic entry into the Paris Olympics).

[PKBasu]

It was a surprise that China won the other pool, and that Malaysia were eliminated (just as Pakistan was from our pool). China drew 4-4 with Malaysia, but beat Korea 3-2. Korea had beaten Malaysia 4-3, so the latter were eliminated. The closeness of those results suggests that those teams are very close to each other in quality -- as is Japan (albeit slightly better). India are now a substantially better side than the Asian norm, but of course we need to stamp our authority on the final to make that distinction completely credible.