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If World # 1, 2, 3 and 4 are going to reach the semis, why do we need an elaborate World Cup tournament? (I am just kidding!). Yes, Australia, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany are all in Semis and are ranked in the same order.

The theme of this tournament should have been “They-Should-Have-Won-It” tournament. Another game and another team (probably the fourth or fifth time) lost a two-goal advantage. England was ahead until five minutes remaining in the game and they not only conceded 2 goals, but also the penalty shootout to Germany. Compared to any other previous comebacks of various teams in this world cup, Germany was playing the worst game. They barely reached the penalty circle in the first quarter. There was absolutely zero creativity by them in the circle in finding spaces, finding other team players, doing one’s own dribbling. There was nothing!  But Germany “knows” how to fight back. In just less than five minutes remaining in the game, they got two penalty strokes. They converted one. The England player was suspended for 2 minutes. Germany removed their goalie and introduced another player. And suddenly boom, Germany had a two-player advantage, which they exploited to equalize.    

Germany probably knew England’s goalie’s weak defense on his left-hand side. All shootouts by Germany went to the goalie’s right side with a quick 180 turn around and shoot to the left side. All of them went in.

The Indian women hockey team has that fire in the belly to comeback probably due to their modest upbringing. Even men had incredible comebacks in the Tokyo Olympics. Can that fire in the belly be taught? Even with a mental conditioning coach and training? I suspect not. Who knows? (I am just a fan and a blogger!)

It is funny and sad simultaneously that few of us in the stadium keep talking about how India could have easily won this game and how they would have attacked in that game blah blah blah. It is sad that we are not in the semis! And that sadness will not go away for a while.

I have now watched 18 matches within a short span of time. I have probably developed some ability to spot the strategies, certain culture on the field and certain weaknesses. I have mentioned some of them in my blogs. But I have refrained from going into some specific details. I will try to be a little more specific for semis and Finals. But then if we expect the They-Should-Have-Won-It theme to continue in semis and finals, my plans and analysis will be tossed to the trash cans. Such has been this world cup!

Ps: Photo credit to FIH

While the results of the two quarter finals were as per the expectations, there was a superb drama in the Australia-Spain match that I did not anticipate at all. Right from the beginning, Spain attacked from the right flank with deliberate intensity. Not sure if the Spanish coach saw weakness in Aussie defense or there was something specific in Spanish midfielder Gonzalez’ attack? But it yielded two goals in quick succession for Spain in the second quarter. Woohoo, we got all excited. Will we see the major upset? Oh well, the game is not over until it is over. When one minute was left in the first half, Spain missed a really really easy chance to make it 3-0, and Australia started its counter attacks. They scored 3 goals within 5 minutes in quick succession. And all our hopes of major upset started melting away. When the score was 4-3, believe it or not, Spain got a penalty stroke (sure shot goal opportunity!) when there were just three minutes left in the game. Definite equalizer, then definite penalty shootout and then definite major upset. Well, that scripted upset never happened. Spain missed the penalty stroke and was knocked out of the tournament.  

The Belgium – New Zealand match was really boring to the point that I went for a chai and watched the game on the screen for a while. Top two teams have now marched to the semis. Belgium looks boringly flawless, while Australian defense looks porous, after conceding 8 goals in the tournament.  

Parents of the Spanish defender #24 Ignacio Rodriguez were sitting behind us. We joined in their excitement and agony by screaming along with them, hugging them and waving their flag. Ignacio’s dad mentioned to us that his son has been working hard for long 18 years to be selected in the team. When I told him that parents must have worked very hard too, he had tears in his eyes. Sometime in my life, I want to understand this excitement, agony and pain of the parents of the sportsmen.

I suddenly noticed the Spanish jersey tagged as “Amat” and remembered the “Amat” dynasty of four brothers in Spanish hockey that dominated the world of sports in 80s and 90s. Looks like their children are slowly continuing their mark in in the sports of hockey as well. Why should dynasties be restricted to Kapoors in Bollywood? They happen everywhere.  

Things are coming to a closure very soon. After today’s second set of quarter finals, there are semis and finals. That’s it!

India was stunned by New Zealand and was knocked out of the tournament. Indian skills (dribbling, trapping, scooping, passing) were grade A, speed, stamina and fitness grade A, experience and exposure to international matches grade A, resources and best available coaching staff grade A, and even penalty corner performance until this tournament was grade A. Then how can 5^th ranked India lose to New Zealand (ranked 12^th), which itself was struggling in this tournament?

Why was there a sudden collapse in the last 20 min? Why did we leave defense exposed in NZ’s first two goals? Why not pack the penalty circle with ALL players when leading by two goals? When the entire stadium knew that the ball would be scooped by NZ directly in the penalty area to get the penalty corner (just before the last goal), why was there no one-to-one marking at both ends? Why that crazy shot by Harmanpreet on the verge of winning the shootout? With so many resources poured in, why was there no mental conditioning coach? Why should Hardik’s and Shreejesh’ injuries matter so much? Why the best player award winner of the world Harmanpreet has not been able to score on even one penalty corner out of 25 (one he scored was when the goalkeeper was not present). Why, why, why? There are no answers. Only a devastating knockout! Right here in Bhubaneshwar in a sold-out stadium! This will be the fourth worst performance at best by India in the world cup history!

What could be the answers to the question “why?” Here are my thoughts:

• Pressure to perform at home, especially after a superb Olympics performance. There are so many advertisements on TV “अभी नहीं तो कभी नहीं” (If we do not win now, then we will never win)

• Too much reliance on Penalty corners (PCs) that did not work in this tournament. PCs have not been unsuccessful for many teams in this tournament. Everybody is figuring out the defense against PCs, by sometimes employing very innovative tactics, such as two-men-rush by Korea.

• Lack of mental conditioning coach

• Grass root level mentality to work individually through less passes, compared to the European teams’ mentality.

• Unfortunate challenges such as missing penalty stroke by Harmanpreeet against Spain, whose performance was impacted after that incident, Hardik’s injury, Shreejesh’ injury when he was defending penalty shoot-out well, and pressure of captaincy on Harmanpreet.

some of you may have woken up to Hockey recently. If you remember the golden era of the 1960s, you may blame modern hockey for India’s debacle. If you remember disgusting performances of the 1980s, you may say, “Here we go again!” But what you may not know is that India won Olympics bronze in 2020 with 12 of 18 players still in the team. You may not know that Harmanpreet has been the best player in the world for the last two years due to his amazing penalty corner performance (with 33% efficiency). That is why this loss is inexplicable. I guess it is time to move on.

Except Germany beating France, all other three crossovers went to penalty shootout and were won by the third-place finishers in the pool. Notably, Argentina was knocked out by Korea. Argentina and India knocked out even after leading by two goals in their respective matches. So, now there are eight teams in the quarterfinals. Belgium, England, Netherlands and Australia since they topped the pool, and Spain, Korea, New Zealand and Germany by winning the cross overs. Quarter finals begin today. Have fun (now that there is no pressure to follow India’s performance)!   

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:

• After two rounds of league matches, three of the four pools have the top two teams tied at 4 points.
• I have another crazy friend, Mudit, who joined me (from my hostel in IIT) to watch all the games in the Kalinga Stadium. Cross checking some observations with him about the action on the field is so much fun!
• Normally, the right and left top corners of the goal posts are the sweet spots for scoring goals in penalty corners. Mudit observed that most penalty corners are staying low on the ground throughout the tournament. Any strategy? Who knows?
• Bad news for India? Hardik, the star player of India, is injured and may be out of the tournament.

– 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