After Winning Azlan Shah Cup, Indian Hockey Eyeing Mega Events
Defending Champions India retained the Azlan Shah title in a dashing style. Albeit a little disappointed for sharing the trophy with Koreans, Indian players are euphoric with their latest silverware. Dictating the terms and setting the pace, they managed to control the tournament despite playing their youngsters in the tournament.
India performed with credit, in spite of the shoddy performance in the opening match where they shared points with China. The men in blue backed that performance with below par effort with a 5-2 defeat against hosts Malaysia.
India paraded its youngsters in the recently concluded Azlan Shah cup. Indian skipper, Rajpal was quite happy that the young blood came up to his expectations. He said that some of the new faces have really excelled in their international outing. Praising the performance of Ravipal and Vikas Pillay in the tournament, he predicted a bright future ahead of them.
With a moral boosting win at Malaysia, India is now eyeing the big tournaments such as the Olympics and the World Cup.
Skipper Rajpal said, "I will only be satisfied when we perform well in 'real' tournaments like the World Cup, Olympics and the Champions Trophy.”
Indian hockey Coach echoed Rajpal’s views and said that the ultimate target of the team is to qualify for the 2012 London Olympic Games.
“Our target is to qualify for the Olympics. We want to create a pool of players so that we can do well in the Commonwealth Games and then in the Asian Games. We want to maintain the momentum and do well in the future,” said Harendra.
The combination of experience and expertise with the enthusiasm of youth was rewarding enough for the team management. Indian maestros, including mid-fielder Arjun Halappa, and an attacking front-line of Tushar Khandekar, Captain Rajpal Singh and Shivendra Singh, had given India the perfect combination.
Among the young lot, Mandeep Antil is quite tricky with his stick work along with his body moves which are bemusing for the opponent tacklers. Both Daniah Mujtaba and Ravinderpal Singh, after a somewhat tentative start, lifted up their games to chip with their goals as well.
At the same time, Indian team has got certain week areas that need to be fixed in order to achieve the desired results in the forthcoming events.
A ham-fisted performance of Sarwanjit Singh often affects the frontline concord. In spite of this weakness, the Indian attackers converted a few outstanding goals in the Azlan Shah Cup and the credit goes to the superb work of Tushar, Rajpal and Shivendra.Mahadik, Rupinder and Sardar Singh in the deep line are perceptibly vulnerable. Goalkeepers Sreejesh and Bharat Chettri showed their mental toughness in handling the pressure.
Incompetence in penalty corners conversion is an area of major concern for India. Parading a team in an international tournament without a specialist drag-flicker is a blunder beyond comprehension. The practice of indirect conversion has so far been deplorable. The sweeper standing near the post pushes the ball straight into the goalkeeper's pads.
Though, the absence of drag-flicker resulted in more field goals from the forwards but an expert drag-flicker could have increased the victory margin. As yet, the Indian management has no preparation for it but coach Harendra has indicated that for the drag-flick, a senior might be deployed in the upcoming matches.
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