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.

Ind v Pak - Watch out, Indians are thinking now!

No packed stadium, no deafening noise, little crowd support, enormous pressure of past 2 high margin victories and even further, not at home turf - a very different environment for the Indian team as they played Pakistan today. Coach Jose Brasa had announced at the commencement of the tournament that for them the main matches are the ones against Pakistan followed by against Japan. No doubts, most of the Hockey fans were eagerly waiting for today’s game.

India got their deserved victory today. They beat a struggling Pakistan 3-2. Moreover, India beat Pakistan in almost all departments of the game.

Ticking the scoreboard early, India took 1-0 in the first minute itself; courtesy, Sandeep Singh's accurate flick. However, Pakistan was back in the game. The way Rehan Butt, with his back facing the cage, pushed the ball between his legs caught Bharat Chetri clueless that such a hit is also possible; no points to guess his push did find the goalpost board.

The 2^nd goal where Shivendra Singh – his efforts will not be reflected in the score line, unfortunately - rallied in the left flank beating numerous defenders shows that this player has an immense talent. Dharamvir Singh didn’t do injustice his team-mate’s brilliant stick work.

The highlight of the game was intense play focused in mid-field. Both India and Pakistan, under the respective coaches, have hogged on to the concept of ball possession. From 1 full back to the 2nd one to one flank followed by the reverse drill to another flank - both teams were mostly seen doing this. However, Indians have displayed tremendous commitment in adopting this style of play. At times, it was interesting to see Pakistan players charging Indian defenders to take possession of the ball - a tactics which usually Australians apply which needs extreme levels of fitness.

There is a huge improvement in Indian players' fitness. Barring a few who man the opponent’s half, whole team falling back at the time of an attack, short passes while clearing the ball show how India has learnt to play under intense pressure. There is no hurry to clear the ball by a hit in mid-field or the sidelines; Indians have started using their eyes and mind more often than ever.

Indians also made it very difficult for Pakistan to penetrate the circle. Statistics will have it, in spite of the good ball possession that Pakistan had in Indian half, it should be read as: Pakistan possessed the ball in Indian half (excluding the circle). The result was obvious: India conceded only 1 PC in the whole game.

Although the goals that India conceded were momentary lapses in defense, it also display of class and exuberance of Rehan Butt and Shakeel Abbasi. Be whatever the strategy of the team, these players' game is a vivid treat if they get the ball solo. They can perform dodges which no player in the World can do.

Indian defense were almost on their task today. Instances where they failed resulted in severe penalties, mostly. One sloppy trap from Mahadik gave Pakistan a real chance; not getting the stick down in time by Gurbaj paved the way for the ball to Butt to open the score for Pak; Instinctive tackle by Prabodh cost in a PC for Pakistan; lose ball from Sandeep gave Abbasi a chance which he didn’t miss.

Apart from those stray instances, Indian defense looks much more promising than the CWG games. Sardara Singh proved his class in playing as a full back. Sandeep Singh has shown marked improvement in the defense in this year.

Most importantly, Indian defense was consistent and saw it to the end.

Indians have started doing things which they never used, foremost being ‘thinking’! When Arjun Halappa clears the ball and starts moving down the sideline, he takes a couple of seconds but passes impeccably to a loner player around center line, who passes it to Khandker who coordinates a very dangerous looking attack.

Another instance of this 'thinking' is when Tushar enters Pak circle he holds on for a minute and gives the pass to Sarvanjit. Even though Sarvanjit was on high pressure point in the D, he took a while and then banged the ball on the foot of a Pak player, resulting in a very important PC for India.

There has been marked difference in Pakistan's game. Man-to-Man marking, more of team work, and ball possession are the areas where it's difficult to believe that it's the same Pakistan team. However, the lack of innovative ideas when usual attacks were blocked, poor changing of flanks and a counter-strategy to stop India from playing it’s game cost them the match.

One may argue that the margin of victory for India was very small and given the fact that Pakistan got a chance in the dying moments of the game, it was anyone's game. However, to contain Pakistan the way India did required guts and a game-plan. It was a planned effort rather just a chance. The fact that India earned a PC in 69th minute - their victory was sealed at that moment itself no matter what the result of PC - is indicative of a fact India was thoroughly in control.

All in all, the emotions were not running high, so the only other thing remained were legs and mind. They both earned India the victory they desperately wanted to cruise into the semis.

I feel scared to confess that Indian players have forced me raise my expectations from the upcoming games!

Thankfully, Chhetri has not been Negi-ised

15th Oct 2010: 

We have grown as a country, at least in our thinking.

Take the example of today's CWG 2010 Hockey final between Ind and Aus.

Before CWG 2010, 1982 Asiad was the last grand sporting event India has hosted.

In 1982, the finals of Men's Hockey, at the same venue - Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium - Pakistan thrashed India 7-1 in almost the same fashion as Australia did today, at least as per the score line.

I don't know, they say India choked under pressure. Then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi turning up to watch the match dented their mental balance. The forward line couldn't score. The defense gave the opposition too many chances. Hell fell loose on Indian Hockey that day. (That is another topic that recent victory of India over Pakistan 7-4 has been termed, by many, as a revenge after 28 years.)

When a team loses, you can't blame individual players for that. But, we being a country which likes to find villains in any debacle around us, found one on that day - Mir Ranjan Negi, the Indian Goalkeeper. The nation owes it to him for what it did to him then and thereafter.

Today, none other than Dr. Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi were present in the stadium.

We got royally thrashed by 8-0. The agony was such that with 8s to spare, Australia utilized it and scored their last goal of the match beating the whole defense comprehensively. We couldn't penetrate their circle; if we did they cleared it comfortably. Often they came in our sacred circle and went back contended. Call it whatever, India failed in all departments.

India has shown a lot of character in this tournament. Beating Pakistan, and then England, India has shown that they are willingly taking a baby step forward in World Hockey.

Yes, within a matter of few days, the expectations went very high. Although, thinking rationally India hardly had a chance in today's finals - Baring a couple of upsets, Australia has beaten everyone in the 2 years with huge margins and has not lost any tournament either - but the fans of the home team wanted just a bit more than silver.

Had India just replicated their performance against England of the other day, it would have been a very different looking score today.

Anyhow, we just didn't lose, we lost without putting up a fight that any event Finals deserve.

So, it's almost the same finish as that of 1982 Asiad Hockey Finals? Then, why didn't we find one villain in Bharat Kumar Chetri today?

One may argue that those days the passion for Hockey was very high, hence the emotions ran very high, hence the desperation to crucify one individual.
To that I would say if it was a packed stadium that day, today it was an even more packed stadium - the capacity of the renovated stadium is much more. Today, a lot of people who wouldn't follow Hockey otherwise kept track of what was happening in today's match. Today is the last day of CWG 2010 and India is in close contest with England for the 2nd position in medal tally must have contributed to that interest surely.

So, one can't argue that Hockey was not being followed by as many people as those days. Passion was certainly running very high, today.

I tend to believe that one big leap India has taken in its 'thinking' has been after Delhi World Cup 2010. Everyone saw in front of their eyes where World Hockey has reached. Previously if people used to say, "They (players) don't play well, haar ke aate hain har jagah", they now say, "We are far behind in World Hockey."

Going by our expectations, which we attach to every sporting event in which India participates, I would say we got thoroughly thrashed in the World Cup (winning only 1 match, against Pakistan). However, very interestingly, following the World Cup, I didn't read in any newspapers for a long time that India fared poorly. Most of the voices almost emphasized: In the World Hockey exhibition, there is a long way to go for us.

So, say thanks to the World Cup for bringing change to our mindset or call it progressive thinking or you may say we have moved on from our past, but one thing remains for sure, Chetri not being crucified after today's game is a very healthy sign in Indian Hockey, both for its fraternity and it's fans.

We have started to accept that our team didn’t play well. We are certainly moving forward...

A very special moment to see India beat England

Post Ind-Aus match, Jose Brasa said that we are best team at the practice and worst team in matches - I kind of believed in what he said. But now, for sure, he will agree that his lads have delivered many lessons that he taught. However, if he says there is more to come, we are surely waiting for that treat.

Beating Pakistan 7-4 in a jam-packed, all-sold out stadium was special but by storming into the CWG Finals outplaying England, Indians have knocked at the doors of top-level World Hockey. No development teams, no injured players, no last minute drop outs, no suspensions, we don’t have any reason to downplay the victory of our team yesterday.

It’s almost impossible to beat a top-notch country like England. It was not fluke but a fiercely contested battle. Englishmen never gave it up until the last second of extra time and so didn’t India. Although, Bharat Chhetri’s save in the shootout was priceless but it’s heartening to see people talking more about Indian team’s rejuvenated performance.

From the traditional mindset of defense is the work of full-backs and half backs to the more recent principle of full team defending an opponent’s attack, India has made a big progress in modern Hockey. Sardara Singh, otherwise a playmaker in the mid-field in his entire Hockey career, in the defense line is an endorsement of the fact that contemporary Hockey is about challenging oneself. Mahadik’s improvement of his mistakes from the previous games is a commendable effort.

The Dutch can’t claim anymore that Indians play position based Hockey so it’s easy to mark them. Take this example of yesterday’s game: A Vikram Pillay diving from nowhere in the ‘D’ to deflect a long cross pass from Sandeep Singh almost from the half line.

Mid-fielders playing like crazy attackers, defenders coming down to the midfield and forwards reaching out to help their defense line, only exemplifies the concept of ‘Total Hockey’ recently embraced by Indians under their Spanish coach.

Certainly, gone are the days of wild hits into the circle with no takers.

After pushing the ball for PC, the way Sarvanjit Singh comes and stands to the left side of the post – he can’t be practically marked at this time – depicts that India is ‘thinking’. It wasn’t that England was short of ideas. During their PC variation – by which they scored the 2nd and 3rd goal - they caught an otherwise brilliant Chhetri, short of ideas, movement and reaction time.

Indian story doesn’t stop here: 4 on 4 marking in the Indian circle as the English attacker enters the top of the D only to find Prabodh Tirkey who did nothing but only implemented a point from basics of Hockey. Result: Dangerous looking attack confidently foiled followed by a counter attack.

It’s not only this, Indian athleticism has blossomed, the team movement in the midfield, flanks and the circle is so fast that it really put the otherwise very stable, very strong defense, resilient English team under pressure.

Long accurate passes, neat dodges, very little solo Hockey, least dribbling, changing flanks, you name a technique where Indians were criticized before and they look promising now.

Going down 1-3 and then recovering to give a gripping finish to the match is a reminder of the fact that it’s needs time and effort to reach such a stage. Not playing with heart but with strategy as well is something Indian team is putting across to it viewers and critics. It is these things that speak volumes of hard work by coaching staff headed by Brasa.

For the moment, Brasa, with his efforts, ideas and professionalism, has won the hearts of many fans who have overloaded him with their expectations.

Australia is reining World Champion and they almost look invincible. Pakistan stopped them 1-0 a few days back. If we can even match up our yesterday’s performance who knows what the final score board may read and I may get down to writing another intensely felt blog like this.

Whatever the results may be but CWG semi-finals between India v England will certainly make it to the Classics category and a Hockey fan like me will take pride to say, “Yes, I didn’t miss it.”

Not much gain for Indian Women in World Hockey rankings

A preliminary calculations, before the qualification matches start suggests the following:

13th ranked India may remain at 13th if they lose to South Africa for the 9-10th position match. If they beat SA, they climb only to the 12th spot. 12th ranked South Africa, however, doesn't get affected by this and are sure to become 11th ranked after this WC.
Currently 10th ranked USA, the only team amongst top 12 who didn't reach the WC, are sure to go down to 12th or 13th positions depending on India's performance.

8th ranked Spain and 9th ranked Japan, after their dismal performance in this WC will contest for 11-12 rank matches. If Spain wins this match, it will become 9th ranked otherwise it will be 10th ranked. For Japan, a win is a must to retain their 9th ranking or else they become 10th.

11th ranked Korea are all set to attain the 8th ranking irrespective of the result of their 5-6 ranked match against Australia. Similarly, 7th New Zealand will retain their 7th World ranking irrespective of the result of 7-8 position match against China.

5th ranked Aussies, are sure to slide to 6th position, courtsey 6th ranked England who will surely make to the 5th position. Depending on their performance, they can reach the 3rd position.

3rd ranked China, a big dissappointment in the WC, will slide to 4th or 5th position depending on England's final ranking in the WC.

1st ranked Netherlands can't go down below 2 in World Rankings. Similarly, 2nd ranked Argentina can't go below 3.
4th ranked Germany can hope to be anywhere between 2-4.
That essentially means, Netherlands or Argentina are the only teams that may emerge to be World ranked 1, after the Women's Hockey World Cup, Rosario, Argentina.

P.S.: Personally, I am a big fan of World rankings of FIH. The results of any tournaments are never drastically different from the then rankings of the participating nations.