New Delhi: Battered, beaten and wounded - the Indian men's hockey squad appears a sorry lot having made the worst possible start to 2014 with two consecutive losses at the Hockey World League, which were more of a surrender than a fight unto death.
The scoreline against England (0-2) and New Zealand (1-3) may not appear a spanking, but those who saw the games were shocked to see the team failing to react and going from bad to worse in terms of hockey basics.
Rust on Indian skicks was apparent in poor coordination and lack of ball-control in the midfield. The usually dependent Sardar Singh has frustratingly played below par, failing to guide play from the centre of the pitch.
The forwards have held onto the ball for way too long, guilty of inaccurate passes and losing possession from advantageous positions - bringing their circle penetrations to a naught.
Problems in defence continue to be the same. Soft errors have gifted opponents penalty corners (PC) and holes in defence have allowed easy sighters at the Indian goal. In fact, more than once in the two games, English and New Zealand forwards have scored in one-on-one situation versus India goalkeeper PR Sreejesh - all due to silly mistakes in defence.
Having PC specialists is one thing and goal-scoring ones another. At present, VR Raghunath, Rupinderpal Singh and Amit Rohidas are 'PC specialists' - not 'PC scorers', which continues to hurt India.
There are already questions being raised about what Terry Walsh has tried to change that has made this team look such a shoddy outfit - playing at a level much below than they did under Walsh's predecessor, Michael Nobbs.
Just accepting the performance as "sub-standard" and "horrible" won't do. His bosses at Hockey India would want solutions. "Our performance was sub-standard and unacceptable. We play well in training but when it comes to performing under pressure we falter," Walsh has said.
"We are making a lot of errors in executing our basic skills. We were horrible with our penalty corner conversions. It is very frustrating to see the team missing scoring opportunities," he said, without explaining what the coaching set-up - which also includes MK Kaushik and V Baskaran, apart from High Performance Direct Roelant Oltmans - is doing to rectify that.
Germany will come on the pitch wounded and hungry after a shock defeat against England in their second game after thrashing New Zealand 6-1 in the opener. And though all eight teams are assured of a quarter-final, thanks to tournament's wierd format, the World No. 1 and Olympic champions will look to get back to wininng ways before the knockouts.
India are currently fourth in Pool A with zero points and will play the Pool B toppers in the quarter-finals if they stay at the bottom. Germany have three points with a win and loss in their two games.
For India, the match is an opportunity to show that they belong to top-flight hockey and deserve a place in the quarter-finals irrespective of the tournament format.
Comments
0 comment