Tokyo Olympic 2020 - Hockey

[Rajiv]

That 1972 Munich team also produced the only Keralite with an Olympic medal. Manuel Fernandez, the goalkeeper. Come on, my man, Paratt Raveendran Sreejesh, we Malayalees want another medal!!!

Jay just a slight correction, the Malalyalee GK of 72 Munich was Manuel Frederick and not Fernandez.

And along with him, names of his other team mates like Michael Kindo,Ajitpal,Harmik Singh, Ashok Kumar,Charles Cornelius still ring in my ears

[jaydeep]

Proud with the team's performance and what they are doing at Tokyo ...

[prasen9]

Hmm, the land of P.T. Usha, Shiny Abraham, Anju George has no medals except that one. BTW, what is the origin on Malayalee, the word? Is there any link with Malays?

[jayakris]

Jay just a slight correction, the Malalyalee GK of 72 Munich was Manuel Frederick and not Fernandez.

Oh yeah, Frederick. Not Fernandez. Forgotten man in Kerala. I don't think any Malayalees even know that he is the only Keralite with a medal. I forgot even the name .... Thanks!

[jayakris]

Hmm, the land of P.T. Usha, Shiny Abraham, Anju George has no medals except that one. BTW, what is the origin on Malayalee, the word? Is there any link with Malays?

A Malayali (plural gets written as Malayalees as it is said with an accented "i" by people) is somebody who speaks the language Malayalam. The language name actually comes from the place name too. "Mala" in Tamil and Ptoto-Dravidian languages is a hill or mountain (same as in Tirumala at Tirupati). The word Malayalam almost definitely originated on the basis of the western ghats that is in between Kerala and Tamil Nadu, both of which had Tamil till 6 to 10 centuries ago, and Malayalam developed with infiltration of samskRtam by people who came from the north. The people who spoke it were called "Malayalam people" by Tamilians and others. It could be "Mala+Azham" or Mala+Alam" or even Mala+Vaaram, with a "y" coming in as a connecting sound... "Azham" which in Tamil is really "depth" or "drop"... So "Mala+azham" is more like the "drop by the mountain" (on the other side, looking from TN side) and the "zh" sound can corrupt to a "la" sound. "Alam" itself can mean "region" in Tamil (I think). "Vaaram" can be "along the side" also, if I'm no mistaken. So that could have resulted in a word "Malavaram" which could've led to the word used by foreign travelers as Malabar - though that region is really in north Kerala, north of Kochi and Thrissur. There is really no consensus on what resulted in the word "Malayalam". Anyway, somehow a bunch of ideas connected to "mala" (mountain) merged together and the people, place, and language - all started being called "Malayalam".

By around 8 to 10 centuries ago, the place also started getting the name "Keralam" (said as "kaeruLum" with accent only on the first syllable, with a Dravidian "L" sound that doesn't exist in N.India, but is sorta there is Marathi). There the root word "kaeram" refers to coconuts, because the land was filled coconut trees. That stuck as the name for the land and Malayalam became the name for the language. [By the way, we only say "keralam" in Malayalam. The "um" sound gets dropped by English speakers for whatever reason, like that doesn't sound English-enough, so it became Kerala, with an "ah" ending, which is not really the name of the place. There is no place "keral" like many Hindi-speakers think, either. The place is "keralam" and the English form is "Kerala"... In any event, it is not "ker-aala" like many people say. It is "care-uh-luh" or "care-uh-lum"]

Once the name of the language was fixed as Malayalam, the people who spoke it became "Malayal-is" like Tamil-ian" or Kannad-iga. As it is said with accented "i" it often gets written as "ee", so Malayalees in plural form...

To answer your question, Malayalam has no connection to Malay, the language/people of the Malaysia/Sumatra/Borneo region. Their language is not much connected to Tamil or Proto-Dravidian at all, and the root word "mala" there does not refer to hills, as it does in Tamil. Same applies to Malagasi (Madagascar) - which has connection to the Malay languages through direct trade and migration, but not to south India and Tamil - from what I gather.

[PKBasu]

That 1972 Munich team also produced the only Keralite with an Olympic medal. Manuel Fernandez, the goalkeeper. Come on, my man, Paratt Raveendran Sreejesh, we Malayalees want another medal!!!

Jay just a slight correction, the Malalyalee GK of 72 Munich was Manuel Frederick and not Fernandez.

And along with him, names of his other team mates like Michael Kindo,Ajitpal,Harmik Singh, Ashok Kumar,Charles Cornelius still ring in my ears

Charles Cornelius was the main goalkeeper in the 1973 World Cup too, but the reserve 'keeper was Cedric Pereira. Surjit Singh was the player of the tournament in the 1973 World Cup, although my hero was the other full-back Harmeek Singh, who was coming to the end of his career. I didn't realize it then, but he was also the brother of Ajit Singh (the guy who missed a couple of simple goals against Australia in the 1-6 loss in Montreal 1976; Ajit's son was one of the stars of the 2003 Asia Cup winning side, Gagan Ajit Singh). In the final, Surjit scored twice in the first half, and India led 2-0 at the halfway point of the match. Kruize led the all-out attack in the second half, although Surjit scored again -- but the goal was disallowed. (Had TV referrals existed, it would surely have gone India's way). So it ended 2-2. In the sudden death, India were awarded a penalty stroke, but Govinda failed to convert it. In the penalty shoot out, Charles failed to save a single one (many said Cedric would have done better), and Holland won it 4-2 (the fifth shot didn't need to be taken). The host definitely got a lot of the benefit of the umpiring, but India didn't make too much of it.

At the 1972 Olympics, the host West Germany had beaten Pakistan in the final, but the Pak players and fans made a nuisance of themselves, invading the pitch, attacking the German players, and turning their backs when the German national anthem was played. 8-9 of the Pakistan players were banned for life, but this was subsequently reduced to 2 years, and they returned by the 1975 World Cup and 1976 Olympics.

[arjun2761]

In their pool match, GB tied Belgium 2-2, while they lost to India 1-3 in the QF. So by immutable laws of transitivity, it is advantage India in the SF!

[ssp]

PKB: Harmeek Singh was a left half and his brother is Ajit Pal Singh. Ajit Singh was a forward in the 1976 team and not related to these two brothers.
That 1973 loss in the final is still so painful. Missed PS by Govinda and awful umpiring cost us that title.

[ssp]

Just watched the replay of the QF. We didn't control possession as well as we should have but GB didn't really threaten us too much apart from PCs. The umpiring was biased but not as bad as I expected. Gurjant wasted a video referral and that may have saved us conceding the PC that lead to GB's goal. The biggest difference was our intelligent press and team defence. Any GB player in possession was often surrounded and forced to pass backwards or make an error. Our first 2 goals came from this pressure.

Our midfield was pretty good, but in defence, Rupinder Pal looks slow. In attack, Mandeep wasn't as bad as usual, but is still our weakest player. Dilpreet, Gurjant and Simranjeet have been good. Lalit was rested today.

Belgium will be a very tough team to beat, but I feel we have less historical baggage against them compared to Australia, Germany or Netherlands. Hopefully they peaked in the pool games

[jayakris]

ssp, I had similar feelings. I didn't have too much issue with how we were playing. Despite not having the ball, we were playing to a plan and playing under control most of the time. We were playing well. I have almost never seen them playng in this style for as much time as they did today, and still keeping things in control. In fact I wonder if we have ever had a game with only 40% possession where we allowed only 1 goal and won. Not many games, for sure. But maybe that style of constant marking of the players tired out our guys a bit. I saw at least 3 or 4 occasions in the last 10 minutes when our sticks didn't come down on time or our players didn't lunge enough for interceptions that were there for the taking. But like you say, some guys at the back are a bit slow-footed anyway (and that's true even when they are not tired!).

But we have really cut down on the trapping mistakes and passes to nobody and all that. We looked pretty solid. And for a change we showed some flair to score in the circle too, today. Hope it gives them some confidence to try things in the next games. I saw many cases in the last few games where we were a little tentative in taking the shots in the circle.

[Sin Hombre]

We are playing on transitions. Football went through this in the last decade, where the idea is to give up possession but press high on the pitch and cause attacking transitions on moments where the defense is out of position.

This is tactical and well planned and executed.

None of the nonsense around "stickwork" and physicality.

[rajitghosh]

Within 1st 9 minutes both teams have hit the post once. No goals yet.

[Sin Hombre]

India has the lead.

Can we dream!

[Sin Hombre]

Aussie girls complaining non stop now.

[srini]

Am i dreaming pinch pinch! No.. we are infact leading 1-0 in women’s QF game. We hold on 1-0 at half time but we can expect aussies to come back roaring in 2nd half