India suffered second straight defeat in Sultan Azlan Shah Cup after losing to Korea 2-1 in the game played today despite dominating the game today. Here are the five things I learnt from the game played today:
Nobbs would be worried looking at forward-line firing blanks |
Indian attack is new
headache for Michael Nobbs
Former Indian coaches used to face the problem of porous
Indian defence and spent all the time in solving that problem with no success.
Michael Nobbs came and nearly solved the problem by finding couple of good
defenders but now Michael Nobbs is facing another problem, this time of Indian
attack. Just like World Hockey League, the performance of forward-line was
disappointing and no one except Mandeep Singh was able to have some effect on
the game.
In the first half of the tournament, India had no shots on the goal
and in the second half; there were not more than 5 attacks on the Korean goal.
Right from Dhyan chand to Shivendra Singh, Indian hockey was blessed with great
attacking players but the current lot are nowhere near them in terms of talent.
Just like he sorted out the problem of weak defence, Michael Nobbs will have to
find a solution to India’s attacking problem.
Gurjinder Singh needs
more playing time
Against Korea, India won four penalty corners and India’s
first choice of PC expert Rupinder Pal Singh wasted all the penalty corners
earned. While Rupinder was missing penalty corner, on the bench Gurjinder Singh
was waiting for his turn to have a go on Korean defence, but during the entire
game he did not get any chance to showcase his penalty corner skills. He was
kept waiting on the bench and got very little playing time. And when the match
was out of India’s hand, Gurjinder was sent on the field to play. Gurjinder
Singh was top goal scorer of World Series Hockey and also adjudged the best
player of the tournament. So benching the player of such calibre does not make
any sense. He was given very less playing time in World Hockey League and it
has been same case in Azlan Shah. Is he the victim of hockey politics between
IHF-HI despite doing well?
Harbir Singh is
already running out of time
Absence of Raghunath in the tournament had given an
opportunity to young Harbir Singh to stake his claim in the squad but his
performance so far has been a big disappointment. Against Korea today, he was
erratic and made many mistakes. He also conceded three penalty corners in the
early first half which allowed Korea to take a lead. Many would say, he is
young and must be given time to prove himself, but making mistakes like that
would not help him stay in the team. He still has few matches to play in the
tournament but it’s time for him to make an overnight improvement in his game
to be able to keep his place in the team.
Mandeep is the star
of Indian team
India’s teenage sensation Mandeep Singh has improved with every
game played so far for India and today against Korea too he was a treat to
watch. He was the only player of the squad who was actually trying to create
chances to score. He along with Manpreet Singh and Malek Singh created first
goal for India and constantly kept on working out a way to score another goal.
Despite him being not on the score sheet, he has it in him to go on and best
player of the world.
Sreejesh is indispensable
The way he has been performing for the squad, there is no
other keeper in India who can threaten his numero uno status. Since his debut,
he has been bread and butter of Indian team and no Indian team is complete
without him. Today against Korea, he was once again standing like a wall and
thwarting off Korean attacks on his goal. He was brilliant during penalty
corners and if not for him, India would have conceded 3-4 goals in the first
half of the game itself. He did concede two goals against Korea today but those
goals were none of his fault. Sreejesh today is very important for the team,
and keeping him away for the squad is going to be big blunder.
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