Prem Judge: “Indian shortcomings are too obvious to ignore

“India need to pull up its socks immediately, rectify its mistakes if it wants to do well at the 2010 World Cup”, says Prem Judge, an older timer, who watched all matches at Kuantan Asian Cup.

The Perth based die hard fan of hockey flew down to Kuantan specially to be among the action and he wrote exclusive for stick2hockey.com.

His observations:

Indian defenders were seen busy taking off protective gear after failed penalty corner rather than immediately manning up till the ball out of the danger zone. They can attend to such housekeeping later on?

Three top defenders go up to take the penalty corner; 2 fullbacks are understandable but why should the centre half also go up to take the push in ? This leaves defence in very shaky hand, giving up easy counter attacks. Let one of the forwards take the push in.

Pakistan scored a goal in the very first second of second half with a lightening raid while our boys were still walking to their positions!! Indian goalkeeper was still outside the side line of the goalpost putting away some gear!! He was still getting into position when the attack reached the D. Yes, the referee bungled as he should have made sure that the keepers were in position before blowing the whistle, too late to cry now.

Korea-China match was the perfect example of finishing and availing of chances — almost a 100% success rate in their opportunities and strike rate. The Koreans carried the ball into the D, held the ball and either earned short corners, converted or passed to players in better position and FINISHED. Indian play sadly has been uni-dimensional, long hits hoping for errors, blasting away from all angles the moment they crossed the D even if there were players in open position

Defence throws long overhead balls thus giving away possession to opponents often, read the play early and moved in early to cover the ball. Indian players were reluctant to carry the ball into the D, create defensive errors to earn short corners. With the kind of ball skill the Indian players have they could have worked for more short corners. Some other teams did this very well and got rewarded. People like me were howling away “pher se pawo” “short corner karo” etc in vain of course.

Sandeep, though good at short corner conversion, lacks in variation, as was seen in the China game. He scored 2 high flicks, fluked one which rolled along and was almost converted by none other than the veteran Dilip who ran in and tried to push it in. What were the other forwards doing? Seem to be bystanders and totally asleep? Then he went for another high one which the goalkeeper had already read. Before leaving for Kuantan my good friend Adolphus felt that Sandeeps flicks would have been read at the Azlan Shah Cup and variation must be used. These are old timers like me who are still good readers of the game as we spend hours watching games.

The Chinese used tactic well too by creating a time out in the last 20 seconds when India won the short corner, a player went down so that time would be stopped and the Indians would not be able to delay the taking of the short corner till time was up and thus could attack with all 10 players at the D. In fact I was screaming at the Indians to go up and crowd the D even if short corner failed and China could score another last minute goal,

The coaches wanted to ensure that they did not lose the game. Still I think I would have just held on to the ball and created another short corner to play time out and then used different variations to ensure that either a goal was scored or a penalty won instead of a wild flick? Being captain and chosen flick taker I think he did not try out Dilip with a direct hit even once, I sense a bit of greed rather than Nation comes first.

There was always a huge gap between the forwards and defenders, almost 30 meters, so when the forwards were attacking there were no half’s high up to intercept any quick moves or even to give support. Guess this is where fitness comes in and some were hiding their weakness by staying low. The Chinese, Koreans and Japanese were full of run for almost the full 70 minutes and this may have been the deciding factor.

Players are professionals these days and have to be able to make full use of opportunities and convert even half chances. Remember the first goal against Japan was a gift by the defence as the ball was flicked to top D where Indian player was waiting else story may have been different.