Hockey Junior World Cup: Holland 3-2 India - Brilliant clinical Dutch

Hockey players in action during India vs Netherland, Hero Junior Mens Hockey World Cup at National Stadium on December 6, 2013 in New Delhi, India. India lost 2-3 to a strong Netherlands

Matc Summary

The first Dutch goal, in the third minute set the tone of the whole match, after which, India always remained on the back foot.  The midfield press of Holland was effective and tightly marked the main driver of the Indian midfield Manpreet Singh.  Overall, the Indian midfield was quite ineffective and the amount of ease with which the Dutch midfield was cutting through the Indian middle was astonishing.

The Indian middle/center half position was left completely open and it was difficult to estimate who was manning that spot.  The new player Harjeet was possibly overawed by the situation and was missing in action.  Talwinder, who does not deserve to be in this Indian squad, was a pedestrian and looked out of sorts.  So was Imran Khan, who even though fed beautifully by balls from the middle to the left, did nothing on two wonderful opportunities.  His is also a selection that befuddles the average onlooker.  The halftime score of 3 – 1 was an adequate representation of the turn of events on the pitch.

Dutch play

The back 4 were solid and organized.  The midfield was excellent, very slick passing [of course helped tremendously by the woeful lack of opposition from the corresponding Indian midfield], great off the ball running, and the wonderful exploiting of the Indian weakness right through the middle of the pitch.  They cleverly took advantage of the lack of balance and indiscipline of the Indian back 7.  The deep striker Van Baal was always a thorn in the side of the Indian goalkeeper Harjot Singh, who, particularly did not have a good game. Van Baal was responsible for two rebound goals.

Indian play

It appeared that they were a touch slow in releasing the ball.  The only time they looked good was when they stripped the ball off the Dutch midfield.  But their counterattacks amounted to nothing, because of poor passing and decision-making.  Imran Khan’s two missed opportunities proved costly for the Indians.  The decision-making was slow and their ability to get past the Dutch midfield press was woeful.  They could have easily used the back pass in such situations to then change the position of the attack to the flanks from central midfield.

The play on both flanks was uni-dimensional and easily telegraphed to and suppressed by the Dutch.  In fact, the center half position was never utilized in building up forward play. A video sequence pointed to coach Clark showing exactly the same fact on the drawing board. Pradeep Mor was the right midfielder who was the main culprit and again begs the question of his “ability” to play at this level. Devendra Valmiki would have definitely been a better choice.

Defensively, the defenders appeared indisciplined, particularly in positioning.  They were unable to stop the Dutch forwards and midfielders, especially in the first half. What was surprisingly galling was the poor play of senior team players Kothajit, on the left, and Prabhdeep on the right.

Particularly glaring was the sequence that led to the first goal. A poor decision by an Indian midfielder led to a Dutch possession in midfield with India having disadvantage in numbers. A very static Kothajit allowed the midfielder to get past him; an event not worthy of a premier senior experienced player in the Indian team.  In fact in the whole game, he appeared subdued and shaky and even allowed another penalty corner against him. Now back to the sequence, once Kothajit was beaten, Sukhmanjit the center fullback, being out of position, runs diagonally towards the left, arriving late and being completely eliminated from the play. The right fullback also cheats to the left or centrally leaving the far left post completely open for two Dutch players to poach at that post, , one of whom scores easily from 4 m out. In fact, either of them could’ve scored as also another trailing dutch midfielder.  Terrible, terrible defensive indiscipline.

The second Dutch goal was a result of the central/right midfielder, Prabhdeep Singh. Rather than clear the ball from a defensive position to a waiting teammate, he tried to jockey it with 3 Dutchman surrounding him. He was stripped of the ball, again it being relayed to the central striker who relayed it to the lead striker 4m from the goalkeeper, which led to his padding the ball, but to a Dutch forward who easily put in the rebound.

The third Dutch goal was a goalkeeper mistake, leading to an easy rebound goal from 4m out.  But the real culprit were the 4 defenders, none of whom took on the responsibility of stopping that “route 1 ball “straight to the goalkeeper.

The first Indian PC goal was, I thought of a deflection of a Dutch stick.  The second goal by Akashdeep was a peach of a goal, rightly being broadcast in the highlight reel.  His goalie fake while on the breakaway 1 vs 1 against the goalie, should be on every coach’s teaching tablet.  The way he got the goalkeeper to freeze was outstanding.  And then an impossible zero angle goal off his reverse stick.

Overall, a comfortable well-deserved win for the Dutch.  With the lack of a midfield and the senior Indian players not showing up, the lack of being able to string together 3 successive passes, portends not very well for the Indian team. It will be difficult for India to come out of the group stage unless the deep defense organizes better and the midfield shows up to play.