Hockey Junior World Cup: India 3-2 Canada - Future of Indian men's hockey looks bleak

2 of 3 solitary Canadian entries into the Indian D, resulting in 2 goals.

This in essence sums up the whole story. Notwithstanding numerous relevant facts— that India had an astonishing 70% ball possession, innumerable entries into the opposing D, Canadian midfield allowed them room to play, unlike the Dutch, Canada being possibly, the weakest team in the competition with the exception of Egypt, they had hardly any penetrations into the opposing 25, for quite some time they played a player short, still, in spite of all this, India struggled to execute a come from behind 3–2 win. An extremely poor performance indeed!

Goal 1 Canada 3rd minute

Simple, effective, schoolboy type attack from the right, ball , relayed to forward on goal line 5m from Indian left post. Simple strike into goalkeepers pads, muffed by him, leading to the ball hitting the far post, resulting in a rebound to the Canadian captain Panesar, leading to a simple finish.

Goal 1 India

India’s 3rd PC, beautiful, executed variation without Gurjinder, PC Battery to Mandeep, who redirects the ball and scores.

Goal 2 Canada

Classic PC conversion, high left corner. Johnston, PC resulting from D infringement by Surinder.

Goal 2 India

Route 1 ball redirected by Raminder,

Goal 3 India

Classic PC conversion by Gurjinder, high right corner. PC engineered by individual skill of a Mandip foray into the D.

Overall game:

Again, India started in a similar fashion to the Dutch game being a goal down in the third minute and then chasing the game throughout the 70 minutes. This tendency of being sloppy initially and being slow starters is hurting them.

For long periods, the ball was parked in the opponents half, with Canada, allowing them space to use their dribbling ability in midfield. Multiple forays into the rival D, resulted in the goalkeeper smothering most of the potential of those moves.

Only in the second half, did the Indian forwards start adjusting to this early charging goalkeeper. Many of the entries into the D, came to naught because of the lack, of decision-making, a good final pass and a killer final touch. Canada fought tenaciously like an underdog. The circle penetrations and 25 m penetration stats were lopsided in favor of India, so was the PC ratio.

Indian play:

With being allowed a lot of room, the Indian team, including the midfield, had an easier time. The 3 consecutive pass sequence, finally made its appearance, on multiple occasions. Midfield was humming and even Harjeet Singh , the new center half, was seen in a few moves. He’s a player, who has potential, but is still too raw.

The attackers played helter-skelter, without precision, and hence the chances were of low quality. The defense was extremely suspect. Prabhdeep (rt/ctr half) & Kothajit (lt Defender) continued their poor form, and thankfully were sparingly used.

Imran, Talwinder & Pradeep More, continued to justify the questioning of their presence in the national team. The latter with his hard hits into the circle, in spite of multiple set up opportunities in open field, very badly hurt the team. Satbir Singh, link, is also another suspect player.

Manpreet, central midfielder and captain, was the only player who could be recognized to be of international standards. Mandeep and Akashdeep played well. Harjot, the goalkeeper, is not having a good tournament so far. Gurjinder Singh continued to stand up and be counted by his PC prowess. If he strikes form, it could be a different tournament for India.

Canada play:

Goalkeeper Kenny Periera was outstanding. Defense played its heart out. Midfield was scrappy. Strategically they were superb, waiting for the few opportunities in the opponents circle and capitalizing on them. They nearly pulled it off. Their coach should be proud.

The colossal waste of resources and mismanagement in drafting this team.

It is truly amazing that in spite of millions of dollars of expenditure over the 2 years that this team is playing together, the expenses meted out to all the 25 odd Junior India players, the loads of international experience, playing on the national senior team, the Junior team tours of Malaysia and Europe and being continuously in camps for 2 years, the 2 coaches, both early appointees, having these players under their wings, for extended periods, away from the glare of the spotlight, the end result is only a suggestion on current form, that this team will be fighting for the 8 – 10 spot in the world.

This would be in sharp contradistinction to the Junior women’s program that was number 3 in the recently concluded JWC. Lots of questions would be raised, both tactically, and drafting, as regards favoritism of a particular region, the composition of this team, with some players, not worthy of not only belonging to the national squad, but also the justification on even being on the considered/tryout list, let aside being given “a promising player monthly stipend”.

And then what about the role of the coaches, the teachers? Are they not seeing what we’re seeing?

The team, as can be seen, from the build of the majority of players, minus the defense, is thin, and wiry, possibly speedy, mainly attackers. Some of them have shin splits issues. Does it make sense to have the whole team, of the same type? And then what about the passing game, which appears to be at a premium? And the serious lack of distribution skills, except to a certain extent Manpreet?

It does not make sense to have this attack dominated personnel, in the midfield, and defensively the whole team is very weak. A different set of players was definitely needed in the back 7.

It is obvious that what ever time has been spent in honing down defensive structure and skills, has not borne fruit. If after, so much time and effort, it has not been achieved, it most likely will not happen. This will set back the Indian program by a decade.

If this team was to play at the senior level, which they’re doing now, it is more than likely that the senior team also will continue to flounder at the number 12 spot as in the last Olympics. The consequences on India’s chances of qualifying in the future for either the Olympics or the World Cup will be disastrous. As a consequence, the hockey India league, will most likely be rapidly confined to a commercial grave.

Is there a way out? The coaches need to take cognizance of the situation and make some midstream changes. The attack line is not going to get their act together in such a short time. So they should play to their trump card and that is the PC prowess potential of Gurjinder Singh.

Make sure that the best defensive talent out of the current players are always on the pitch. Strengthen the midfield by playing 5 across. Have Harjeet Singh , be assigned, the role of continuously manning the centreline that runs north-south through both the goals. They should cut out the weak central channel.

A difficult decision as to the role of their only international level talent, the central midfielder, Manpreet, awaits the coaches. Should they make him play behind the 3 forwards, as a driver of the attack, which is his natural tendency, or assign him dual defensive/offensive role.

The whole team should play more compact moving east-west with the positioning of the ball, so basically cutting the field in half, and taking their chances, with that far opposing forward. Flank play needs to continue but the center half position, outlined above, can easily be used as an outlet to rapidly change the flanks.

Is it realistic to assume, that the current coaches will make a course correction? The bets are on the opposite. This group of personnel, including the players are distinctly showing a rigid mindset which would be difficult to dislodge. India badly needs a dressing down of both the coaches and the players by somebody.