Truth is that when India was winning hockey gold medal not many countries were playing hockey so the competition was hardly there. This was mentioned by one of the teammates of the hockey team that won gold medal. Once the developed countries started playing hockey India had to take backseat. In the indian contingent all facilities are eaten away by the administrators and managers and the actual sportsmen do not even get a decent meal. This single reason is enough for failure and there is no need to look beyond this. In a fully corrupt system you cannot expect a sportsman to reach a level where he can expect a medal. We must not forget that bindra practiced at his own private facility and anand and paes too are self made sportsmen. Govt spends a lot of money on sports but all that is openly eaten away by the administrators and managers and as the system is fully corrupt nothing can be done. Our sportsmen also are fully aware of everything but keep quiet as they have nothing to lose if they do not win a medal and if by mistake or chance if they win they have something to gain.
Re: fact
by Shobhit Acharya on Aug 01, 2012 12:56 AM
To ponder about: Whats the population of Netherlands - Less than Mumbai's population. Also how many months in a year is it covered in snow - 4 ? How many Olympic Gold medals has Netherlands collected ? I dont know, but for sure its atleast ten times more i can guess.
Truth is that when India was winning hockey gold medal not many countries were playing hockey so the competition was hardly there. This was mentioned by one of the teammates of the hockey team that won gold medal. Once the developed countries started playing hockey India had to take backseat. In the indian contingent all facilities are eaten away by the administrators and managers and the actual sportsmen do not even get a decent meal. This single reason is enough for failure and there is no need to look beyond this. In a fully corrupt system you cannot expect a sportsman to reach a level where he can expect a medal. We must not forget that bindra practiced at his own private facility and anand and paes too are self made sportsmen. Govt spends a lot of money on sports but all that is openly eaten away by the administrators and managers and as the system is fully corrupt nothing can be done. Our sportsmen also are fully aware of everything but keep quiet as they have nothing to lose if they do not win a medal and if by mistake or chance if they win they have something to gain.
I think they played well in their first match. Though many improvements are their like passes can be bit quick and short. and support needed in forward and midfield to pull the opponents out of their D. being 0-2 down and then recovering to 2-2 was very good. We must force the opponent to concede penalty corners. We had only 1 and gave away 3 (not sure about exact count)....anyways good luck for future games guys
Re: Good show
by taklu on Jul 31, 2012 02:05 PM
the dutch clearly outplayed us..our first goal was sheer luck. but luck always doesn't come to the rescue. yesterday the better side won.
Players were not passing the ball. they were try to became hero by scoring them self. Its a team game. Short and quick pass will help. long and fast pass will not help. They need to change the game. Its not grass anymore.
Re: Players should pass the ball
by apurva singh on Jul 31, 2012 08:44 PM
on astroturf, long and fast passes work. short passes get you no where. they are for grass turf where long fast passes cannot be controlled due to unpredictable bounce.
Re: Re: Players should pass the ball
by Ganesh on Aug 01, 2012 12:28 AM
Long or short...that's not the question. The question is that they weren't passing the ball as much as the Dutch. Infact we Indians keep on dribbling the ball and each player who gets the ball clings onto it for as much as he can just like a kid would cling on to a toy for maximum time.
The sheer joy that the ball came to a player overwhelms him so much that he forgets its a team game and just doesn't want get rid of it quickly.
Each of our players wants to show India and the world that the have practiced so many many months and achieved great control over the ball and mastered this great dribbling skill rather than showing the world that its a team game and where lighting fast passes on astro turf is the order of the day. When in ROME do as ROMANs do. When on Astroturf and when against the western country opponents who are lightning fast in passing, we also should be doing that rather than playing our style of individual heroics hockey,.
the scoreline doesn't tell the whole story actually..the Dutch created more realistic chances, and they could've easily been a goal or two more ahead. The difference between the two sides really showed.
Indian forward line members would like to see that the goals hit by them instead of passing the ball to the other team-mate who are close to the goal past like Uthappa, shivendra singh . This was the main reason we missed so many chances. Our coach should guide and instruct the forward line members on this account. If we do that, we will win more matches. After the match, during the press conference, the coach and captain should give credit to the forward line members who helped other for securing win.
India one of the best sides to see, need to mix hockey the way we have been playing traditionally with the agility, swiftness, fast passing and the practice with which the Europeans play. It has been 25 years now and we haven't been able to blend. The coaches, players cannot blame any further to the blue trough, international exposure, lack of facilities. I wish the standard of game which we play gets raised.
