A Hockey dream comes true

It was the first, a never witnessed event, in my life – A jam-packed Hockey Stadium at Bangalore. The occasion was the first semi-finals of World Series Hockey between Karnataka Lions v Sher-e-Punjab.

This was the same stadium I have visited umpteen times in the past 8 years or so watching local matches, school-level matches, Super Division League matches but none of them could ever gather a crowd of more than a thousand people. Stars came and left, displayed their class and played their hearts out but the Hockey synthetic turf located in the heart of Bangalore, remained only a driving direction landmark of the ‘Shanthi Nagar’ locality.

The stadium premises from its either gates, its turf, its stands never stopped anyone from moving around anywhere. But today, it had hoards of people from all directions approaching the stadium with a number of check-points and security guards. Traffic police coordinated the vehicular movement and a brightly lit, noisy stadium greeted its audience from quite a distance.

Karnataka Lions had played its 7 matches here but for me it was the first match at the local stadium.

The view inside was unimaginable. A panoramic view of the East stand revealed people, people and only people. Even in the West stand, our friend found it difficult to hold space for us as the crowd kept pouring with little space left to sit. Desperation levels were high in the massive que waiting to clear a security check.

Children, families, young people, middle-aged people, ladies, gents, singles, couples descended down to the stadium in various colors along with their banners. With electrifying music, cheer girls, dhols, drums, LCD display, electronic score-board, it was a dream-come-true setting for a Hockey fan.

Very interestingly, one got a feeling that spectators around were not much educated in Hockey. They just came to a stadium for a family outing – a Hockey match based family outing. Wow!

As the game progressed, I could see the happiness on the face of my friends who visited a sports stadium for the first time in their lives; they would go on to rate it as a memorable life-time experience. I presented a few facts and figures about the game but the crowd cheer, the dhol noise, the DJ made it difficult to communicate with a person sitting next to you.

The first quarter ended at 1-1 and even though Shers got their share of penalty corner early in the match, it looked like an even game.

The local public, apparently, for over the past one month or so, had developed an affinity for Karnataka Lions and had clearly come out in support of the Lions. As and when Lions picked the ball in the midfield and rallied down the flanks, the crowd roared for the Lions. Whenever Shers missed a chance, there was a ‘hoooooo….’ sound from the audience mocking at them. It was reminiscent of World Cup match in MDC Stadium, Delhi where it seemed that the whole stadium, without an exception, was supporting Indian team – a goal by opponents followed pin-drop silence and simple move by Indians created noise, high enough to reach India Gate.

However, amongst all the hulla-gulla, Lions performance kept disappointing as the game progressed. They wasted a couple of simple chances when Shers’ goalkeeper was beaten and only the formality of the last, well-directed push remained.

Shers had deployed a religious man-to-man marking and their defenders made sure that they matched each and every step of Karnataka forwards. Arjun Halappa in the mid-field was rendered ineffective partly because of his tiredness and mostly because the Shers marked him too.

Lions left huge gaps in the mid-field and whenever Lions would approach the opponent circle, they would be greeted by at least 6 Shers meticulously guarding their circle periphery denying any penetration to the Lions.

At one time, one felt how Shers have such superior field coverage – whenever they attacked, the ball was with their unstoppable forwards, and whenever they defended Shers’ defenders outnumbered Lions’ forwards.

Public shouted often at the Lions for making petty mistakes, missing an injection at the Penalty Corner, Lehn never getting a convincing chance but for the Lions, the problems were much deeper – they looked worn-out, fatigued, short of energy, their sprint was loose and non-committal and they preferred to wait for the ball to reach them whereas Shers intercepted and ran away with the steal.

Even though crowd felt very relieved when a Penalty Stroke was defended by Lions’goalkeeper Devesh Chauhan, but Shers were merciless on penalizing the Lions for their mistakes.

With hardly seven odd minutes left and Shers leading 4-1 there was a visible movement in the crowd – fans had given up the hope and were leaving the stadium. However, a friend was quick was remark, “7 minutes in Hockey a good time to bounce back, isn’t it?”

Complimenting his input, I added, “Yes, a few days back a team pumped in four goals in the eight minutes to pull off a stunning 5-4 victory after trailing 1-4. But the Lions look tired; here there is little hope.”

The people who left early weren’t proved wrong. Even in the dying minutes, it seemed that the Shers may not spare the Lions of further humiliation as they kept attacking.

Alas, a rather one-sided match got over with a much deserved victory for Sher-e-Punjab, 4-1.

However, apart from all the yelling and the disappointment, watching a Hockey match in Bangalore amongst a packed crowd is like a dream come true for any Hockey fan.

A close friend once told me that sometime in mid-90s (possibly in 1995), India played against Pakistan - an international match - at this very stadium in front of empty stands because no one bothered to advertise it well to get public to the stadium.

After today, there will be some sense of redemption for many Hockey aficionados who would have dreamt for almost 15 years to see their own Hockey nursery packed up with local people.

And for once, for the first time, it feels that, may be, an international match in Bangalore may not just a dream anymore.

WSH fails to connect and innovate

Written on: 9th Mar '12

The World Series Hockey might have been branded as the only saviour for the otherwise declining Indian Hockey, but unfortunately, it looks like the projected-professional league has a lot of gaps to be filled up.

Notwithstanding the fact that a die-hard Hockey fans will take whatever comes their way in form of LIVE telecast and watching their favourite players play, but lack of quality in various aspects of the event, makes it look like a fairly ordinary show.

A Battalion of unfit players: Remember any star player of the last decade and you have the pleasure to see those rubbing shoulders with young players in WSH.

Sadly, most of them are unfit. Even when there are rolling substitutions, almost all these stars are far from fit to play high quality, exciting Hockey for a span of 6-7 minutes. Interestingly, there is no concrete reason for these players to be unfit. WSH has been on the anvil for at least 4-5 months before it actually started. If the players didn’t work on their fitness in this while, then who is to blame?

Disjoint units: Almost all the teams are namesake ‘teams’. They hardly have co-ordination between their flanks, forwards and linkmen. Seeing the composition of the teams and their (foreign or Indian) coaches, one fancied that a given team will exhibit shades of European Hockey or Australian Hockey or aggressive Indian style Hockey or may be, skilful or tactful Hockey. Unfortunately, the Hockey being witnessed in this tournament is a hotchpotch, nowhere close to the fan’s delight.

Arguing players: Young players are inexperienced but when the star and experienced players argue on every call by the umpire, one feels, ‘Dude, its OK. Come on. Lead by example, please!’

Flip the channels and watch the game: Ask a layman and they will concede that Hockey is a fast game where two goals can be scored within a minute unlike other team games. However, Hockey in WSH is slow and mostly excitement fizzles out as the game enters the last quarter. Unlike high competition Hockey there are no last minute equalizers or match winners in the dying minutes of the game, thereby, leaving the game as a low on the excitement quotient. When that happens, the viewers tend tochange the channels between the games.

Monotonous commentary and presentation: In WSH, there are very few commentators and hardly any expert panelist. Ones who have been brought in, many a times fumble with their sentences spoiling the show. With so many teams involved, one should have at least 5 experts who can offer variety of opinions. Also, the experts hardly predict the winners and what to check out the match for.

And talking of commentary, if one puts the Hindi Commentary channel then you need only one: either the visual or the audio. The reason being, Hindi channel commentary is radio commentary. English commentary is definitely tolerable but far from the international standards.

Poor Camera angles: Many a times, the camera focus is far from the area of action, contributing to an ordinary viewer experience.

Non-Innovative coverage: The less-than-average viewer who has little knowledge of Hockey and wants to get interested in Hockey has hardly anything to look out for. Who all are the players playing a game remains a maze for the viewers? Visuals explaining the position of players are missing.

One of drawbacks of Hockey telecast is you never get to identify with the players who are on the field and what’s their role? For a naive viewer, they are just ball rotators. Even though circle penetrations, shots at the goal, penalty corner statistics are shown regularly on the television but this is too technical for a common viewer to understand and generate interest in Hockey.

Little for traditional fans: LIVE side-line talk with the players, what coaches instruct during the breaks or what umpires talk during the referrals are missing from the game. Moreover, what was the game-plan of the coach in a match remains unknown as, apparently, there are no after-match press conferences?

Life has changed for us: Raffles’kids

As Jude Felix Inter School Hockey Tournament came to a close today, with St. Joseph Indian High School (goal difference +32) followed closely by runners-up Vinay Kumar HS, Ananthpur (goal difference, +28), it came as a life changing experience for another underdogs team, the only International team in the tournament – Raffles Institution Singapore.

Raffles Institution, Singapore with the Fair Play Trophy at the Jude Felix Hockey Academy Inter School Tournament.

Raffles Institution, a 187 year old school in Singapore, is one of top-ranked schools in Singapore. Thanks to the patronage by their Hockey coach, Jude Felix, they got their 1st ever chance to play with Indian Hockey players – their only international Hockey outing in the past 2 years.

Hockey isn’t much known game in Singapore. The school has seen surprising results under Jude’s training - the school is amongst the favorites in various League tournaments in Singapore.

The team that came to Bangalore comprises of 15-16 year old children, which make them eligible for B-Division games in Singapore.

The children don’t know much about World Hockey, and in fact, their awareness beyond the annual Schools Tournament –their ultimate dream is to win it in the coming year – is very limited. Their access to Hockey is only through youtube. They see their coach, Jude Felix, as their role model. Many of them find it difficult to recall a few names of Singapore national level players.

In spite of all this, this bunch of enthusiastic children picked up the sport of Hockey, when they had an opportunity to pick other popular sports in Singapore, only because of their passion and the feeling of giving back something to Jude, whom they all fondly love and admire his commitment to the game. They say, he doesn’t take Hockey as a job. It is his passion.

                                     The Raffles' Hockey Team


The children also know in a crystal clear manner that Hockey is a team game and that there is no place for individuality either.

“If a few children have problems with others off-the-field, we go and talk it out with them, remind them that on-the-field rivalry is not in the spirit of the game; there should be no differences on-the-turf,” says Harshveer.

The heart-warming and humbling experience for these kids is the interaction with the children from Maria Niketan, the orphanage where JFHA is based. The children have spent their 3 mornings at the orphanage, painting their walls with Hockey pictures and caricatures so that the wall of the environment looks more lively for the inmates.

“The experience with Maria Niketan children has changed our lives, forever. They are so kind and humble that we realize that they are so thankful to things they and we take almost everything for-granted,” says Ashraf, with an almost choked voice.

The Hockey experience also has left an indelible mark on their psyche,” The Indians play aggressive Hockey. They don’t waste a single moment on the ground. This is what we have learnt from them. Also, we play short passes amongst us, whereas, Indians are very good at long passes. For us, it’s more about technique and for the Indians, it’s about moving quickly on the field and controlling the pace of the game,” says Benjamin, the captain of the team.

About their on-field experience, Rishi, a forward, tells, “The team struggled in settling down here on the 1st day. But from the 2nd onwards, we were back to our style of Hockey.”

Indeed, that is true. Raffles Institution, who won the Fair Play Trophy at the tournament, was one of the teams with the tightest defense and the most disciplined mid-fielders – they always knew where their forwards and defenders are. Man-to-Man marking implemented by them was a treat to watch.

Having lost both their games on the opening day, they finished 3rd in the pool table. This should have been a big consolation for the team. Also, beating Maria Niketan – JFHA’s beneficiary - in the last game of the game 2-0, will be a special for them.

They thoroughly enjoyed the environment set-up by JFHA organizers, and felt that they never get such an environment, back in Singapore.

The only thing remains untouched in their Hockey lives is compliment and cheers during the game. “Yeah, it would be quite nice to have a few people cheering for us,” says Minxin, lost in the imagination of how it would be.

“Yeah, a few girls cheering would be good, too,” pitches another one with a naughty smile on his face.

The humane touch in India, unlike ever before in their lives, has left many of them overwhelmed.

“One child in the orphanage went around hugging everyone. That heartening sight is my take-back from this whole event,” says Ashraf close to breaking down as he vividly remembers the instance.

Jude Felix, with a few Raffles' Hockey team members.


Written on: 26th Nov '11

“We will play for India, one day!”

“We should not get angry on our team-mates when they make a mistake of a wrong pass,” says a 12-13 year old boy with a glitter in his eyes.

“From Chak De India movie, I learnt how to stage a comeback in the next match after losing one,” a defender says.

“My role model is Santi Sir,” says another attacker of the team.

These are children from Vinay Kumar High School, Ananthpur. The school team is one of the outstation participants in the ongoing Jude Felix Hockey Academy Inter School Tournament, at KSHA Stadium, Bangalore.

Beaming with the confidence, they have out rightly come with one motive, “We are here to win.”

No upsets on the 1st day for them, as they beat both their opponent team comprehensively.

30 children from Vinay Kumar High School, Ananthpur are a part of Rural Development Trust (RDE), whose project ‘Stick For India’ is run by Spaniard players, Santi Freixa and Andreau Enrich.

The children follow a rigorous schedule with 4 hours of Hockey training every day, 2 hours each in morning and evening, not to forget the day that is spent at school. The children reside in hostel where RDE takes care of all their needs with continuous patronage from the Spaniards.

Most of the children are well-versed with high-tech Hockey terminologies – Strength, Endurance, Agility, co-ordination, 1-touch pass.

Having won U-17 Ananthpur district championships and Karnataka C-Division League, the team is well visible in the regional circuit. Not restricting their knowledge on the Hockey field, they very well know, where the Hockey legend, Dhyan Chand, stands in Hockey history and that it’s on his birthday, on 29th August, every year, our country celebrates Sports Day.

Very unlike other schools that play Hockey, the team members have found inspiration in a number of international players – Santi Freixa, Gurbaj Singh, Rajpal Singh, Adrian D’Souza, Pablo Amat, Sandeep Singh, etc. Moving on from the times of Dhanraj Pillay, our youth surely has more choice of role-models now!

However, living away from home, this hard life hasn’t dampened their spirits. They get to meet their parents only once a week or a fortnight, when the parents come to meet them at their hostels. For many of them, their parents’ sayings and remembering them gives them immense strength to perform well at their trainings, the matches and their academics.

So why only Hockey, and no other sport?

“Hockey is a very intelligent and risky game,” a player responds almost spontaneously, supported by others, “and when risk is involved, there is fun!”

One of the players fondly remembers a scene from Chak De India, where the players introduce themselves to the coach, “Initially the players say that they are from various states, and then, eventually, say that they are from India.”

An avid viewer of Hockey matches, the team went to New Delhi to watch the World Cup ’10 and doesn’t miss a match broadcasted LIVE on television.

India v Spain match at the last World Cup was a heart-break for many. So, didn’t they want Spain to win because many of their role-models are Spaniards?

“No! Never! We are Indians,” is the immediate, aggressive and loud response, without a second delay.

Almost all players in this team, with reasonably promising on-field talent, want nothing less from life than the India colors, one fine day. Without a second thought, they are surely not going to settle for anything less.

Their 1st day performance in a tournament is just a feeler of what these young children are capable of.

Written on: 24th Nov 2011.

Tough fight between Raffles and Maria Niketan

               Raffles Institution with Fair Play Trophy


It was the most fondly awaited match for the organizers: Maria Niketan(MN) v Raffles Institution(RI), Singapore.

 The coaches of Jude Felix Hockey Academy have coached Maria Niketan School – the orphanage where the academy is based. RI, Singapore is coached by Jude Felix himself. Jude is also the technical advisor to the coaching panel at JFHA.

The match lived up to the expectations. It was a close contest between the teams. It must have been a difficult choice for Jude Felix, the Raffles coach, to whom to support.

The final score was in favor of RI, 1-0, with Faris scoring in the 14^th min of the Penalty Corner.

It was skill v stamina at its peak display with RI playing around quick and intelligent passes. Maria Niketan players never seemed too tired in the 30m game.

It took both the teams to settle down in the game, as initial 10m hardly produced any concrete move. RI was poor with its trapping; the midfielders were struggling connecting to the forwards. MN was not able to pull off any concrete moves either.

When MN earned their 1^st penalty corner in the 12^th min, the Raffles goalkeeper, Ram, blocked the MN player and the umpire was quick to award a Penalty Stroke to the Niketan boys. It looked almost certain score opener for MN but the brilliant save by GK Ram denied them any jubilation.

Maria Niketan Boys with one of their coaches, Khalid Modi

In the 14^th min, Faris for RI, executing a penalty corner, dodged a falling goalkeeper and had plenty of time to take the ball to the cage uninterrupted. The benches cheered and few moments later, half time hooter set in.

In the 2^nd half, MN boys gave their heart out, attempted a number of attacks. But, primarily because of MN’s poor midfielder and forward communication and effective defense of RI, they could never get that wild swing at the goal.

A run down from the right flank by MN, followed by a hit-in towards the RI circle was rendered ineffective, only because of elegant man-to-man marking by Raffles’ defenders.

The left flank of Raffles always looked strong and that is where they generated most of their attacks. MN, mistakenly, concentrated all the strength in getting the ball possession from this flank and thereby assured poor usage of flanks and the other portions of the field.

But had it not been poor finishes by otherwise lone goal-scorer Faris, the score would have read differently. At least a couple of times, he failed at the last hit at the board.

In the 2^nd half, RI midfielders and forwards pushed the MN defenders to the brink and piled attacks at a maddening frequency. Ashraf earned a penalty corner by his superb run down the MN circle. Benjamin, RI captain, came forward to execute it but failed after a desperate attempt.

In the last moments, another superb attempt by Raffles headed by Hawjia, went begging as there were no takers for the final deflection.

It seemed just a matter of time when MN defenders will open up their defense gates but, creditably, they stood their ground, with a lot of support from midfielders, and managed to restrict the loss margin by 0-1.

This was the last match of the tournament. Raffles made it to the 3^rd spot in the tournament and Maria Niketan found the 5^th spot for themselves. 

St. Joseph Indian High School, winner of JFHA Inter School Tournament, Bangalore

St. Joseph Indian High School won the tournament and Vinay High School, Ananthpur had to console with the runners-up trophy as they lost to St. Joseph’s only on an inferior goal difference.

India loses to Malaysia-Brasa may get sacked soon

I write this blog with extreme difficulty. It's been a pathetic feeling since India lost to Malaysia.

Over the lunch on the semi-final day, a colleague asked me, "Will it be a tuft one for India?".
I replied, "India may sail through but it will not be so simple. Malaysia is an upcoming team. However, the final against Korea will surely be tuft nut to crack". I didn't know it the unimaginable is about to happen.

As I switched on the television, it showed the Korea v Pakistan was into Penalty Strokes. Few minutes later, Pakistan emerged victorious. I wondered, whenever there are 2 favorites for any final and one of them go out, it is usually followed by the second one, too. The match started in just a bit and I didn't spend too much time on thinking about it.

Indians were struggling right from the word 'go'. Malaysian strategy was simple. Strict defensive and only counter-attacks. They made it so difficult for Indians to penetrate the circle that it became a boring game. Mostly the ball just travelling all with over the field with very little gush of energy in the game.
India couldn't penetrate and Malaysia didn't attack on their own. Usual game - Defend, steal the ball, counter-attack and then come back again to defense - went on till Malaysia succeeded in their counter-attack to go up 1-0 in the 32nd minute. Yet again, there was no one to blame but Indian defense. Malaysians were too fast for them.

India pumped in quite a bit of energy after this. Danish Mujtaba got a PC for India. India grabbed this opportunity with both hands. They leveled the score 1-1, thanks to Sandeep Singh's accurate drag flick. Indian players must have had a hard time at the lemon break because the game till now was anything but convincing.

India took an early lead in the 2nd half as Tushar Khandkar scored in the 38th minute but Indian happiness didn't last for long as Malaysia got a PC in the 48th minute. This goal by Malaysia was class apart more for the fact that Malaysians had the confidence of taking an indirect PC. A quick back pass to the pusher and he just had to deflect it. Indian fans could only bite their nails seeing the impertinence of the Malaysians.

Indians had became very aggressive and when they got the next PC in the 54th minutes, Dhananjay Mahadik took the drag flick. His flick was easily stopped by the Malaysian Goalkeeper Subramanian but the ball remained there in front of him. Rajpal hounded on that opportunity and put India again into the lead. The scoreline read 3-2.

With 3 minutes to spare, Malaysia got a PC which they converted and this was the most paragraph of Indian demise story. Scores leveled 3-3, Indians tried as harder. They got an important Penalty Corner but Sandeep Singh was out because of injury. India threw away this chance, thanks to Dhananjay Mahadik, who failed to even make a proper contact to pump in some acceleration into that flick.

Full time and when the score line read 3-3, Malaysians had won half the battle. They thrived on their confidence and within 6minutes they sealed India's fate by scoring on a PC.
Indian performance was on the decline right from the word 'go'. With lesser mistakes against Pakistan, India had started showing signs of poor performers against Japan. Today was just another episode in the declining performance.

Malaysia made a very well deserving entry into the semi-finals of Guangzhou Asian Games 2010. Who knows what they are gonna do to Pakistan in the finals. As the Malaysian coach, Stephen van Huizen, said, "We started as underdogs and we still are underdogs in the finals."

India, now has to find their way to the London Olympics 2010 via some qualifiers in early 2012.
Another sad portion for India is that their loss comes at a time, when coach Jose Brasa's fate was loosely hanging on India's Asian Games performance. India out in the semi-finals is sure-shot disappointment for millions of Indian Hockey fans. The officials were anyway keen on not renewing Brasa's contract with Indian Hockey. No matter how much Indian Hockey has evolved, they have a reason, which they can easily justify, to execute their plans and start off with the saga of non-contract coaches, yet again.

The interesting portion is, as Indian Hockey has evolved, so has happened to Malaysia and Pakistan as well. Even though there is huge improvement in the way Indians have played in the recent tournaments under their Spanish coach, you have to count the fact that Pakistan has a Dutch coach and Malaysia has a American coach. It's all about technology, strategy and innovation.

If at all, India thinks of replacing their coach, it should be another foreign coach and not someone who is dear to the officials. I hope we take a conscious and a calculated decision.

Ind v Jap: Indians struggle against a defensive Japan

It was a very different day from yesterday at the last Pool B match between India v Japan.

India must be very relieved at the full time hooter because Japan was hell bent upon leveling the scores. Thankfully, the score line read 3-2 in India’s favor.

India played with a strategy of long passes. To those passes, either there were no takers, or there were takers who couldn’t trap it cleanly or the takers couldn’t match up to the pace of the hit.

Even when India had leveled Japan's 21st goal in the game minutes before half time, it remained a puzzle at the lemon break if at all India will be able to pull off this one or not. India did come back with some promise when they converted the PC in the 38th minute. The score line was further enhanced to 3-1 in the 62nd minute via a penalty corner conversion by Sandeep Singh. However, Japan was back with a bang as they scored a field goal in the next minute making the score board read 3-2. This remained the final score.

Today, Indians could walk off from the pitch with their heads high but there are many lessons to be learnt from today’s game. First and foremost being defense. Even though defense has shown a lot of improvement but in every game, the goals that India concedes are only because of some stupid lapse in man to man marking. Sardara Singh – extremely vigilant at other times - was just a step behind the Japanese player when he deflected an incoming hit from the right sideline. Chetri couldn't move an inch at this time.

Next goal by Japanese was when all players were fighting for the ball in the right side of the D and a loner Japanese, standing at the top of the D, got the ball and hit the ball above the heads of an Indian and Bharat Chetri.

Both times, it was Hiroki Sakamoto for Japan.

On the other hand, Japanese did a wonderful work with man to man marking and the details of the result are just a proof of it: 2 goals from PC and 1 Field Goal (PC by Sandeep Singh and FG by Rajpal). The Field Goal was sheer class of Shivendra Singh and if you leave aside that, Japan never gave India any space inside their circle.

Another area of concern for India is their lack of strategy.  India has changed many aspects in their basic style of play – no solo games, thinking while passing, no wild hits, no stupid clearances, quick movement on counter attacks – but today’s game needed more than that, i.e. an effective strategy to outplay the opponents. Japan played a defensive games relying quite a bit on counter attacks. Mind you, they were almost successful in that. They could rotate the ball well, retained the ball for long durations whenever they got it, gave shockers to Indians for their mistakes and were effective in controlling the pace of the game.

If India won today, it was primarily due to 2 reasons: discipline in opponent’s circle and a few brilliant saves by Chetri. They worked for their penalty corners, kept checking where their partners are and attempted to give accurate passes. Shivendra Singh’s precise pass - between the legs, with his back facing the post and 2 Japanese defenders almost over him - to Rajpal who scored the 1^st goal just exemplifies this. You can only compare his stick work only with that of Rehan Butt in yesterday’s game.

One of the highlight of the game was Sandeep Singh, not only because of his perfect, on-target, drag flicks but the way he has worked on his defensive skills. Taking the opponents head on, he thwarted quite a few attacks all by himself. Indian defense certainly looks much better whenever Sandeep and Sardara are on the turf together.

India’s worries almost remain the same: At times, Rajpal Singh fails to release the ball and thereby throws away some good chances. Even further it is Dhananjay Mahadik. Whether it is because of pressure or his poor tackling skills but a determined sprinter Mahadik somehow, fails to trap the ball. Even when he does, he leaves it loose. That gave Japanese numerous chances which they couldn’t capitalize on.

There are some happy take backs for India, too. There were times, when Indians held on to the ball for that fraction of a second and passed the ball; some times to the right with reverse stick, at times left and many other times, behind between their legs. That fraction second thought makes this trick possible. Moreover, Brasa’s hammer has gone really hard on players like Shivendra, Tushar, Sarvanjit, Rajpal who have finally blossomed and are at their ever best rallying around the field. If you see Rajpal sprinting along with an attacker from the opponent’s quarter to India’s quarter you are surely give away your heart to him. Similarly, Vikram Pillay’s ground coverage and Arjun Halappa’s intelligence is a visual treat and keeps making you ask for more.

It was a closely contested game and it could have gone any way.  All in all, not the greatest of matches played by India but there is much hope from them in the semis lined up with Malaysia.