Learnings from SAZ 2010

So, fans the tournament has concluded and its time to see what are the positives and negatives from this tournament. It was rain who spoiled a well poised finals. India and Korea were ready to display the best hockey of the tournament. So what should the team learn from this tournament…
POSITIVES
# The team has found correct blend of strikers for the right flank. Players like Rajpal, Tushar and Shivender form a great right flank for the team and their link up has been good.
# Gurbaj and Arjun, these two midfielders were the heart of the team this time. Their play making abilities is a great asset for Indian team.
# Indian team scored more field goals than the PCs.
# No last minute jitters for team India. The team is defending well in the last minutes of the game.

India has played a good tournament, but i found more negative points or the points on which the team has to work in order to succeed.
NEGATIVES
# There was no left flank visible in the team. All the goals were coming from right flank. A good team attacks from both sides. If the team scores only from one side. It will be easy for opponents to defend.
# The team was not playing the players on their positions. Especially Sardar Singh who is a good midfielder was played in defense of the team.
# No penalty corner expert in the team. There was no penalty corner expert in the team. Wasted many penalty corners in order to score a goal.
# Will to go for the kill. After scoring 3-4 goals, the team goes on defensive mode. They have given chance to every team for a comeback.

Win is a win, but if you ask a hickey lover who has been following the game for many years will not like the performance of this team. Winning against weak squads is easy but these wins won’t help much in the upcoming tournaments where the opponents are superior than India.

Australia is a good hockey side and the reason is it has a system which develops players. League tournament is played there throughout the year at various levels.
Even teams like Pakistan, Malaysia have leagues in their country. And then we have EHL where many teams in Europe participate and improve the game. Biggest example of that is England. They were minnows at a time but their game has improved drastically.
So unless regular tournaments are not played in the country, improvement will be slow and without much effect.