FIH Olympic qualifier

[sameerph]

Yes, we beat Japan in last 5 matches but could not win when it mattered the most at home. And to rub salt in the wound , Japan's coach is an Indian Jude Menenzes.

From 4th in last olympics, to not being able to even qualify is a big come down.

[ssp]

Pathetic, but not totally expected. Losing to the USA really was a big let down. I honestly can't see our women improving a lot unless we do something with our domestic system. We select a squad of 20-25 and for 5-10 years and just keep selecting non performing dross, there is no planned replacements.

This coach has been awful, yet the idiots at HI blindly let things slide. No PC specialist is really incredible stupidity. Even by Indian standards, that is shocking. Selections are always crazy.

So much money wasted on tours and tournaments, yet we can't beat USA or Japan when it really mattered. We were awful at the AG too.

All of the above applies to the men too.

[Atithee]

We are just not good enough. Why can’t we accept it?

[prasen9]

I think everyone here accepts that. And, we are all thinking of what can be done to improve that.

[arjun2761]

Not sure how we can say we aren't good enough. We are the 6th ranked team in the world with only #5 Germany ranked better than us. Losing to #10 US and #12 Japan (who have beaten 5 times previously) at home is a real choke job. This is an example of performing very poorly rather than not being good enough.

There are plenty of sports where we just aren't good enough. As an example, our soccer/football team (both men and women) isn't good enough at world or even Asian levels if you see how poor our players are but that isn't the case here.

[prasen9]

Good enough this last year or so. At least not consistent. In the last year, whom have we beaten and has that happened in major tournaments?

[Sin Hombre]

I think everyone here accepts that. And, we are all thinking of what can be done to improve that.

Is this a rhetorical question?

If we want to be a serious sporting country, you fire the coach and the federation and stop funding women's hockey until we see some organic growth. Use that money elsewhere.

[prasen9]

The coach will possibly be fired. But, firing the top honchos of the federation is hard to do. The Sports Ministry should do something but they won't because a lot of these federations are run by friends of the politicos.

[Sin Hombre]

Yes we are an unserious nation and not just in sports.

[sameerph]

Not sure how we can say we aren't good enough. We are the 6th ranked team in the world with only #5 Germany ranked better than us. Losing to #10 US and #12 Japan (who have beaten 5 times previously) at home is a real choke job. This is an example of performing very poorly rather than not being good enough.

There are plenty of sports where we just aren't good enough. As an example, our soccer/football team (both men and women) isn't good enough at world or even Asian levels if you see how poor our players are but that isn't the case here.

Agree on most part. Our # ranking of course is a bit inflated but we have beaten Japan in last 5 matches. There is no way we can say we were not good enough to beat them yesterday.

But, overall we should have capitalized on the 4th place finish at Tokyo just 3 years back and tried to retain the coach or at least hire another top notch one. Instead we went with someone who was assistant coach that time. And the signs were there from Asian games and coach/federation did not act on it.

[Atithee]

Is coach Kabir Khan available?

[sameerph]

In the mens qualifier, Pakistan lost to NZ in the bronze medal match 2-3 after being in 2-1 lead after Q3. With that Pakistan failed to qualify for third straight olympics since 2016.

In men, top 11 ranked team all made to to the roaster of 12 teams for the olympics. 14th ranked South Africa qualifed ahead of 2 higher ranked Asian teams- Korea and Malayasia.

In women, India was the only top 10 team to miss out, the teams ranked lower than India like China, Japan and US qualified. We clearly underpeformed relative to our ranking which is based on performance in last 2-3 years.