Nothing succeeds like success. Victory at Azlan Shah is a positive step in the right direction. Some may like to call it a ‘crumb’ but it is the crumbs that make a wholesome meal.
No doubt that top class teams were missing from the tournament and the opposition was not so strong, still victory is victory.
However there were some glaring weaknesses in the team’s performance. First and foremost was the lack of consistency. Team’s performance against Turkey was a disappointment and set the alarm bells ringing. Scoring only two goals against such opposition and conceding two goals did not speak very high of the forward line and defence.
Secondly, our age old suffering of conceding goals in the last ten minutes. We did so against Turkey and New Zealand who were able to draw a game that we should have won. We have to think of our strategy in the last few minutes depending upon the state of the match, whether we are leading or trailing at that time.
Thirdly, we hear of lack of synergy between the midfield and forwards. Midfield is the backbone and it must stand firm and resolute.
In a round robin league tournament we should not land into a situation where our qualification for finals depends upon a number of permutations and combinations of other team’s results.
Our real problem is our performance against the close marking European teams who do not give us enough room for manoeure. Therefore the need for different strategy and tactics for different teams. We also need to go into the nuts and bolts of rectifying every weakness in detai.
The team has made the right start. It should do well in the Asia Cup, World Cup and Commonwealth Games for which a lot of hard work, planning and good luck will be required.
We wish them all the luck.