My Journey of the Soul
Yesterday I was dejected, frustrated and was very very sad. Even this morning, I was groggy, irritated and cranky. But then I went to Chilka Lake for birding. Visiting this heaven is sooo rejuvenating! I am back. But I will still take a day off and start my blog tomorrow please. Not yet in the full chirpy mood I need for my writing. Stay tuned from tomorrow for my daily blog until Hockey Finals.
Hockey had a day off before knockouts start. Obviously, I promptly went on a sightseeing trip to Konark and Puri. It is such a humbling experience, in Konark by experiencing an incredibly progressive society, who had no hesitation in sculpturing explicit sextual scenery on the temple, and in Puri, by seeing masses from all walks of life totally surrendering to the Lord Jagannath. I have also visited Chilka Lake twice and identified 58 bird species with the help of a guide. For me, visiting Chilka at 6 am is like visiting heaven. Period. Life is incredibly busy for me with such travel, 8 hours of watching hockey, watching so many videos, reading so much news and writing reports. And still so much fun!
Anyway, let us get back to our tidbits.
– I came across Camille and Johanna for the first four days. They must have booked and picked up tickets at the same time as me. Both are from France, studied in the USA and were impressed with the Indian people. It was nice to see them in the news article posted by the CMO office.
– Me and my friend met Rajinder Singh, current US men’s hockey coach and ex-Indian men’s and women’s hockey coach.
– Do you know that in Penalty Corner, drag flicker hits with the speed of 125-150 kmph, and the defender comes rushing *TOWARDS* the ball. There are not many deaths defying moves other than defending the penalty corners. Watch it carefully next time and feel these crazy hockey balls one of these days. Then you would know!
– India is the only country and Bhubaneshwar is the only city that has hosted consecutive two world cups (2018, 2023)
– Hardik Singh started as a ball boy, Nilam Xess did not have electricity until 2017 and Mumtaz Khan (current sensation of Indian Women Hockey) is a daughter of a vegetable vendor. Story is similar for most other hockey players. I feel frustrated that with far less talent, intelligence, commitment to hard work and passion, I earned far more than these hockey players. When will this change?
– There are brothers all over in the tournament. Paul and Pepe Cunill playing for Spain, Gareth and Rhodri Furlong for Wales and Grambusch brothers for Germany. But there is one more special case. Can you believe that two brothers are competing against each other in the world cup? That is only possible down under in NZ and Australia. Leon Hayward was rejected by Australia, and hence, joined the New Zealand team (his mother is from NZ). Jeremy is playing from Australia.
– Niklas Wellen, forward from Germany became dad just before halftime in the Belgium – Germany match. His coach says that this news is better than even winning the world cup.
– India has 10 players from Punjab, 2 from Odisha, 2 from Haryana and one each from UP, MP, Manipur and Kerala.
India’s next match is a knockout match with New Zealand on 22-Jan 2023. Here we go again screaming, unfurling the Indian flag, jumping all over! Fun, fun, fun!!!
Today Pool A and B had final league matches. Belgium and Australia reached the quarter finals directly. Korea, Germany, France and Argentina qualified for next round and will play the crossovers with winners reaching quarter finals. Japan and South Africa were eliminated.
The story of the last round of league matches (in two days) was that there were freaking unbelievable 67 goals scored, including 18 goals by the losers. (Just as a perspective, the losers of the first round of league matches scored only 1 goal). I think, the competition for the pool position opened up the game and the attack played a critical role compared to the defense. There were five hat tricks and Charlet Victor from France emerged as the highest scorer in the tournament with 6 goals. That is unheard of! This is the first ever World Cup by France! Besides, they had a spirited fight with Argentina and drew the game 5-5. Just two days ago, I had praised Argentina as if they ARE the world champion. And today, one of the lowest ranked teams, France, scored five goals against them. Oh well!
On Sunday knock out matches begin! You win or go home. India plays New Zealand. Bad news is that Hardik is out of the tournament due to injury. I have enclosed the knockout map which shows that if India wins NZ, then they play mighty Belgium. Fun literally begins now!!
There is an excellent analysis on penalty corners today in the newspaper (Could not figure out which one!). If you love hockey, it is worth reading the article (Credit to my friend Mudit for referring this article to me.)
I was emotional! It was first ever live National Anthem in the stadium, first ever live match of India (in any sports), first ever seeing heroes in person, after seeing them on TV for several years. Me and my friend were screaming, we were waving
the India flag, we were jumping when India showed up.. And then they disappointed us in their performance yesterday. They needed 8 goal margins to stay on top of the pool, and the score was 4-2. They were disorganized, they did not attack consistently, as if they had given up to be number one in this pool.
Usually I sleep overnight, bring back my rationality, see all replays and then make my judgments about the game. Maybe I was asking too much from India to get an 8-0 score against Wales. Maybe! But still India cannot be so disorganized and continue to miss so many opportunities. Harmanpreet Singh is supposed to be the star drag flicker of the world in penalty corners. Well, maybe weighed down by the new captaincy, his penalty corner performance has been pretty unimpressive. Our star player Hardik Singh did not play. But he showed up on the field for warm up, suggesting that he may play in the next game. One great news is that, in this league matches of the so-called death pool, we won two matches and drew one. Not bad at all!
Hockey tournamens are like the Indian classical music. It’s “Vilambit” tempo builds through slow league matches with the only objective is to build mood, demonstrate some key strengths, and qualify for next round. Now knockout matches start from 21st. Hopefully, players will start playing “drut” tempo along with some bandish and tarana. I will be ecstatic and pissed off possibly in the same game, and that is exactly what the tournament is supposed to be.
Finally, some other news. England beat Spain 4-0 and topped the pool. Netherlands beat Chile by 14-0 creating the world record for goals. Malaysia beat New Zealand 3-2 in a competitive game. So, as of now, from Pool C, Netherlands, Malaysia and NZ qualified while Chile was eliminated. From Pool D, England, India and Spain qualified and Wales was eliminated.
There was no hockey today in the world cup. So, I decided to compile some fun facts and tidbits for all of you.
– Do you know that hockey is played in the water puddle? Astro turf is soaked completely with water. One can even see water splashes on TV when ball or hockey stick hits the ground.
– Why is the hockey pitch blue? The London 2012 Olympics started a new trend for blue hockey pitches, because blue turf helps television viewers to clearly see the ball and markings on the hockey pitch during gameplay.
– Do you know that hockey can be left-handed or right-handed, but not both simultaneously. Therefore, hockey federation has decided to use right-handed hockey sticks. Both handed sticks cause a high risk to injury. For example, if a right-handed player came in for a block tackle against a left-handed stick, they would most likely get hit on the follow through swing.
– Argentina team, inspired by Messi, warms up with football before practicing with hockey.
– Security is tight. Apart from usual things, such as knife, even coins, back packs, water bottles, umbrella and selfie sticks are not allowed.
– Bhubaneshwar is decorated like a new bride 2-3 kms around Kalinga stadium. There are beautiful visual art, lighting, lanterns on the trees and absolutely clean and superb 6-lane roads heading to the Kalinga stadium.
– World cup has an official song called “Hockey Hai Dil Mera” composed by Pritam. Very very catchy tune indeed! (www. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD6Bl1sF4LA)
I will have game related tidbits in my next edition.
ps: All photos were shot on my cell phone.
What would be the management style of a German or Belgium corporate organization in a desperate situation (unlike India or England)? They will obviously still stick to the work plan and processes. That is exactly what Belgium and German hockey teams did in this game as well. They have good skills and excellent fitness (almost as good as those of Indian players). But most importantly, they have a plan that they stick to. And they achieve incredible efficiency of converting opportunities inside the penalty circle. This was not scintillating hockey (from my perspective). But if the objective of playing hockey is to win a game, both teams were highly focused and played very well. In the second game, Korea beat Japan 2-1 in another close match up.
I digress, but I have an important discussion point here. I am a passionate fan of the Univ Michigan (my alma mater) in American College Football. Michigan reached the final four under the leadership of quarterback J J McCarthy. This 19-year boy does mediation for five min right on the field before the game. It helps him to forget past mistakes (including those within the game) and future anxieties. Germany and Belgium have this “cool head” approach inside the penalty circle. It intrigues me as to what makes players become “cool headed” for that instant of 0.1 sec and help them to achieve higher efficiency in converting opportunities to goals? I have no idea.
Few other quick observations:
– Good news for India, the next game is with Wales (not known to be a strong team).
ps: Photo credit to the Internal Hockey Federation
Do you remember that I had asked about the team psychology in the previous blog? What triggers the teams to perform or falter suddenly for a few minutes? Argentina (ranked 7) faltered the entire game against lowly ranked South Africa a couple of days ago and barely won 1-0. At that time, they did not trap well, dribble well, the ball moved like a random Brownian motion with no purpose and the goalkeeper was sluggish.
Not sure if its Bhubaneshwar water, or slapping by the coach, or scolding by family members or them looking at video tape in shame. Argentina literally had an about turn against mighty Australia and almost won this match. Australia is a prepared, methodic and highly skilled team. But I think Argentina wanted to prove a point to their coach (or their wives!) that they are not pushovers. Australia scored the first two goals. Argentina netted the ball with the next three consecutive goals, including two field goals (not by penalty corners). Australia tried “Chak-De-India” fame one-on-one marking, partial one-on-one, complete zonal defense, attacking Argentine defenders before the ball reached the midfield. Nothing worked. Eventually, they let the goalie go and introduced all eleven players on attack. This risky strategy worked, and they scored the final goal in waning minutes of the game.
Trust me; Argentina is back! Inspired by Messi, they want this world cup as desperately as anybody else.
There were three other matches. New Zealand was thrashed by Netherlands 0-4. NZ implemented a strategy of removing the goalkeeper in the first quarter. Such a weird strategy will yield weird results. What does one expect? France beat South Africa 2-1 , their first ever goal and first ever win in the world cup. Finally, Malaysia beat Chile 3-2.
Group B second round matches are pending for Day 5. Then I will analyze the scenario of who is expected to go to the next round.
Ps: photo credit to International Hockey Federation
Friends, this is one of the most scintillating hockey I have seen for a while. If you did not watch this game yesterday and you get to see the replay somewhere, please, please watch it.
Both teams have been trading 5th and 6th place ranking for a while. In the Commonwealth Games, they drew as recently as in 2022. Both teams stated that “attack” is their main strategy. Both coaches said that “defense” will win them a game (for “attack” as a strategy). Everything came true exactly as expected. There were opportunities literally showering cats and dogs in every minute of the game. Both teams were ready to take risks and exposed their goals. Both goalkeepers had some of the outstanding saves. Entire squad of both teams went up and down. For example, Indian defenders Harmanpreet and Amit Rohidas were hanging out in opponent areas more than defending Indian goal. England attacked from both flanks with very high speed. Hardik penetrated through the open space at center. I literally gasped with some spectacular feeders by Harmanpreet to the attacker in the penalty circle. Too many incidents, too many flashes of unbelievable skills, too much high speed running with the ball.. but no score.
Defense by both teams was even more spectacular. (I am really running short of words and overusing words like “spectacular”, “amazing”, oh well, such was the game!). Bottom-line, I was happy to see this game as a hockey fan and disappointed for not winning the game as an India fan.
I observed that unlike Germany, both these teams ran up and down and completely screwed my spatial analytical assumptions of branding players as defenders, midfielders and forwards. I will be watching the next India game in the stadium. Hopefully, I gain some insight.
I also observed that India (and other teams as well) as a team suddenly loses a focus at a stretch for 5-7 min. I do not understand team psychology. If any of you have comments on this topic, please let me know.
Ps: Credit to International Hockey Federation for the attached photo
Three European powerhouses (Netherlands, Germany and Belgium) were pitted today against three Asian middle-ranked teams (Malaysia, Japan and Korea). Asian teams showed the passion and aggression in the first half in spurts. European teams were not finding the rhythm in attack. So, nothing happened in the first half, there were no goals, zippo, zilch! In the second half, the methodical approach of Europeans and the lack of dribbling skills of Asians were sufficiently exposed. Again, nothing unexpected happened. Europeans won with large margins. In the fourth game, New Zealand established the early lead against enthusiastic Chile, which Chile could not overcome. But in the process, Chile scored their first ever goal in the World Cup and the only goal by a loser in this first round of league matches. Pretty pathetic and boring. Isn’t it?
Is it because this is the first round of league matches that eliminate just one team out of four from each group? Is it because I am hockeyed out watching 16 hours of hockey in two days? Is the gap between excellent teams and second level teams too wide? Who knows!
Of course, I can go into details and explain spectacular positioning of five German defensive players such that Japan could not penetrate the pass to its attackers. Such amazing spatial awareness of defense is impossible to see on TV. In attack, they always had two players in the circle (note that unlike Soccer, there is no offside in Hockey). They moved the defenders to the midfield (leaving the goal fully exposed) and the midfielders provided the transition to feel the circle. Wow! Will they have the same chakravyuha against India and which Abhimnyu will break it? Stay tuned. It can get pretty interesting!
India came out smoking hot on home turf beating Spain 2-0. This was expected to be a tough game. Spain has beaten India thrice in 2022. They have a history of being spoilers. Spain and India (along with Netherlands) have been the only countries that have qualified in ALL world cups since the tournament started. So, this is a huge win for India under its belt.
In the first half, India was aggressive and attacked the penalty circle with vengeance. Whenever Spaniards had possession, there were 2-3 Indian defenders around them. This risky strategy is not sustainable without incredible fitness of Indian players and extremely fast (almost every 2-3 min) and seamless rotation by coach Reid. I saw one other amazing skill displayed by the Indian midfielders. They scooped the ball to the right flank with consistent success, yielding several penetrations and securing at least three penalty corners. All these opportunities yielded two goals. First goal was by Amit Rohidas, the local Sundargadh hero from Rourkela (where the game was being played), during a penalty corner rebound. The second goal was by Hardik Singh (Nope, not that Cricket guy), attacking from the left baseline with his 3-D skills (which means raising the ball on the hockey stick and running with it). Amit’s first goal was also the 200th goal by India in the world cup (the fifth country to do so).
In the second half, India lost a very simple opportunity. Captain Harmanpreet also missed a rare penalty stroke. All of these misses impacted our mental focus in subsequent penalty corners. In the fourth quarter, an Indian player received a ten-minute suspension (unfair from my perspective) and India had to resolve to the defense. Overall, excellent start for India. Please watch the next crucial India-England game on Sunday at 7 pm (India time) and 8:30 am on the east coast in USA
As I had mentioned earlier, I will be watching every game played in Bhubaneshwar. I watched Argentina-South Africa and Australia-France. Despite being ranked seventh in the world, Argentina was disorganized and played an awful game. Luckily, they won against weak South Africa 1-0. Ranked one and favorite Australians are an amazing team. High skills, well organized, fast and efficient in the penalty circle converting penetrations into goals. Naturally, they won 8-0 against another weak team France. I will write about my experience of watching live matches (vs watching matches on TV) in my next edition.
