Category: Hockey2023

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

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.

How many of you have watched India-Pakistan hockey games in 70s and 80s? Ahhh, they were the epitome of classical field hockey! Ballet on the field, stickwork, speed and short passes of Tahir Zaman, Samiullah and Hasan Sardar! There was nothing more beautiful to watch in sports!  Oh well, the situation has changed. Pakistan has not qualified for the 2023 world cup. Gone are those days of neighborly rivalry that defined the art of hockey! 

Pakistan has won the world cup 4 times out of 14. In fact, Col Noor Khan of Pakistan is the one who initiated and organized the first world cup in 1971. So, what the fxxx is going on? What happened?

I tried to read the sports articles in Pakistani media on google. They have the usual complaints that modern hockey has stolen the emphasis of stick work, shifted the focus of the game to Europe blah blah blah! But they never did the homework that modern hockey was introduced in 1986 and Pakistan still emerged as the champion in 1994. Media also blamed resources, corruption, administrators, and the government exactly the way India did in the 1980s when it collapsed spectacularly from the top of hockey. Those were generic issues. So, what really happened in 2023? That is a freaking bizarre story.

The scene is the Asia cup 2022. Top four teams would have qualified for the world cup. In the Pakistan-Japan match a draw game would have been sufficient for Pakistan to qualify. Pakistan scored and it was now 3-3. Then the referee saw that Pakistan had 12 players on the field. The Pakistan captain got a five-minute suspension. Pakistan could not believe that they had 12 players on the field. They objected. During the review, it was found that 12 players were on the field during the previous goal itself and hence, the goal was withdrawn. Pakistan lost the game and were eventually never reached the top four positions. Have you ever heard of such a bizarre idiotic story?

It would have been so much fun to beat Pakistan! But that rivalry is no more! Sad, indeed!

I am visiting Bhubaneshwar, India for the World Cup Hockey Championship among 90+ nations, 16 of whom have qualified for the final rounds in Bhubaneshwar and Rourkela in India. Important knockouts are in Bhubaneshwar, so I decided to stick here, instead of visiting Rourkela. I will send regular snippets of the competition for your quick review.

There are four groups each with four teams. After playing league matches, the last team is eliminated. The second and third teams play cross-over, then quarterfinals, semi-finals and finals. It means only one team is eliminated at the end of league matches.    

Four pools are:

Pool A: Argentina, Australia, France, South Africa  

Pool B: Belgium, Germany, Japan, Korea   

Pool C: Netherlands, New Zealand, Malaysia, Chile    

Pool D: India, England, Spain, Wales      

Being an American citizen, I would have loved to have the USA in the tournament. Besides, Pakistan has had illustrious success in the world cup tournaments with four out of 14 championships. But they could not qualify. I will explain that bizarre situation in the next snippet.   

Why is India in a tough spot? England is ranked 5th; India is ranked 6th and Spain is ranked 8th. While Wales is a newcomer, they have shown great promise in recent Commonwealth games. It means, if they win against any of the three teams, they can throw the pool in complete chaos. Incidentally, Pool B is also in the same predicament.     

Finally, some stats: India has won the world cup in 1975 and bronze in recent Tokyo Olympics. Guided by able coach from Australia, Graham Reid, they are hungry, fit, fast, have stamina and skills. England has reached the semis in the last three consecutive world cups and have never even got the bronze medal. They are hungry. Spain is a traditional spoiler and Wales is entering this tournament for the first time. They will create chaos in Pool D. Enjoy, Go India Go!