The Sports-India Community

yes expected them to beat the Japanese but our girls are way too weak on the ball...

Do we do anything other than lose finals!!
In my heart, I knew we wouldn't win today. Pathetic return for such a huge investment. Just feeling c**p

sameerph wrote: ↑Fri Aug 31, 2018 2:28 pm

kujo wrote: ↑Fri Aug 31, 2018 2:22 pm
anyways - good showing for a silver!

I don't think it is good showing for a silver, Kujo.

We are ranked 9th and Japan 14th in the world rankings and we have beaten Japan more times than not in last couple of years.

Ahh.. got it - my fear was, they might lose in semis to China. Hence that statement!

Lucky to be leading 1-0 so far , Pakistan is playing very well...

PC conversion by Harmanpreet to give 2-0 lead with 10mins to go

Wow absolute no marking whatsoever from our defense .. Pakistan scores 2-1 with 8.30 mins to go

Mandeep makes a mess of a chance but we hold on to win 2-1 ..

Post by ankit1407 » Sat Sep 01, 2018 11:55 am

Mandeep makes a mess of a chance but we hold on to win 2-1 ..

He's an expert at this...honestly, we pick the most inept players. Mandeep and Akashdeep have been atrocious in key matches since their debuts in 2013. 5 years and they are still selected every bl**dy time!! It's ok to persevere with guys that show some improvement, but these 2 (and a few other duds- Danish, Uthappa etc) have held us back and cost us key matches with their garbage

But a win is a win, I guess... I will take the bronze. Didn't want any more humiliation... But really, we need to identify chokers in key matches and get rid of them for us to take the next step in hockey. We may never take that step though. The idea of evaluating choking and seeing who messes up when pressures (real or self-made) builds, has never been part of our system. Some of these guys need to go, as ssp has been harping on, for ever.

And Japan won the men's gold too beating Malaysia in penalty shoot out.

Further despair for us as the team we beat by 8 goals at group stage went on to win gold.

Also, no quota places are distributed at Asiad as Japan already has confirmed entries as hosts.

Amazing comeback in this match by Japanese team showing never say die attitude ... They were 2-5 down with 10 mins to go, 6 goals scored in last 10 mins.

Scrappy game v Pakistan today. For large parts we were poor. Huge gaps in midfield (defending too deep), tackling was slack, lost all the 50/50 loose balls (& most of the 60/40 ones too because of clumsiness), stupid aerials which got intercepted most of the time, really poor passing, zero elimination skills in the attacking third and over exited-ness whenever we managed to get into the circle.

Most of our experienced players were awful today- losing the ball repeatedly and going for crazy passes or dribbles when just some composure and keeping possession was called for. WE will do well to get the QFs in the WC. We are capable of being really cr*p in any game.

I really don't know what we can do from here. The selectors are unlikely to drop the dross that is in the team. I would like to see the back of 5-6 of this squad. Even Sardar is becoming a liability. Rupinder Pal's been around for 7+ years and his PCs are becoming worse with each tournament. I'd drop him too. Manpreet and Sunil have each played 200+ internationals, yet can do the most crazy things imaginable.

Our forwards are hopeless. We usually have 2 or 3 utterly maddening guys who are only going to score off deflections. Whenever they come up against a decent defender they will get dispossessed. So if our PCs are rubbish, we are not going to win many matches-even the ones where we have dominated. We can have 65% possession, 2:1 in PCs and shots, but the opposition just needs 2-3 PCs (which is the minimum we gift away with our lunatic lunges or not retreating 5m) and we lose crucial matches. This has been happening for ages.

I can guarantee that Mandeep & Akashdeep will remain and promising guys like Dilpreet, Vivek and Simranjeet will be dropped.

Thank god we at least won the bronze medal match. This was a gold medal wasted in that shocking SF loss to
Malaysia. Japan winning the gold medal in Hockey is unbelievable!!