It is a new beginning for India under coach Paul van Ass but old failures continue to haunt them as they look for their first win in the Azlan Shah Cup. India will take on hosts Malaysia in Ipoh on Wednesday and, just two matches into his reign, Van Ass has his plate full.
A string of decent results papered over the cracks for a major part of last year. However, like in the opening two matches, lack of sharpness in the attacking third coupled with defensive lapses at crucial junctures have been India’s bane for quite some time.
Having already qualified for next year’s Rio Olympics, much of India’s focus will be on finding the right team combination and tactics for the Games.
Van Ass believes India have been the better team in both their matches but ‘silly errors’, especially in the striking circle, have cost them wins.
For quite some time, India have lacked a goal-poacher who can pose threat to the opposition defence merely with his presence inside the ‘D’. Young Mandeep Singh has struggled to live up to his early promise and has been injury prone. He hurt his ankle in the opening match against South Korea and his availability for the remainder of the tournament remains doubtful.
His strike-partner Ramandeep Singh too has not been scoring consistently enough. He is liked by the coaching staff for the ‘number of opportunities he creates’ but he has often let down the team in fulfilling his primary responsibility – scoring goals. Both in international games as well as the Hockey India League.
Akashdeep Singh and Nikkin Thimmaiah have been impressive, but in patches. “We have seen in the last two matches finishing has been a problem for us. The strikers need to play more responsibly because every single ball has value. We need to be sharper inside the 25-metre circle. We are also witnessing some problems in trapping the ball,” skipper Sardar Singh was quoted as saying by Press Trust of India on Tuesday.
Defensively, too, India have been disappointing, conceding soft goals at critical stages. In the opening match against Korea, Seongkyu Kim and Jun Jung Lee managed to score despite the presence of four Indian players inside the ‘D’.
Against New Zealand, too, lapses in concentration resulted in the team conceding goals despite dominating almost every other aspect of play.
Though favourites, India can ill-afford to take Malaysia lightly in Wednesday’s encounter. The hosts have had a tendency to trouble India in their recent encounters and would be gunning for a win in front of home crowd. They have lost both their matches but put up a spirited fight against Australia, a match they narrowly lost.
Van Ass has not had the time to tinker with India’s playing style during his short stay with the team before the Azlan Shah Cup. He has liked what he has seen so far but has urged the team to reduce the errors. He, after all, knows that its the results that matter in the end.
“In the creative part, we were more fun to watch but in the end it doesn’t count. It is the result that you take with you. And we need to start working on converting good play into results,” he said.