Five Things We Learnt From India's Performance Against Ireland

Defence still a headache

Raghunath and his defence have to tighten up to stand a chance in the Olympics

Strategic offensive principal of any game/war says, best defence is a good offence. Any team if defensively sound can go all-out attack without worrying about happenings in the defense, but Indian team cannot afford such pleasure as its defence, despite improving a lot over the years, is a concern.

India is blessed with good defenders in VR Raghunath, Rupinder Pal Singh and Surender Singh, but despite having three great defenders, the performance against Ireland will give coach Oltmans a headache, Against Ireland, India conceded 9 penalty corners which is nothing short of criminal, with penalty corner expert Raghunath being the major culprit..

While India did well to save 7 of those 9 penalty corners, conceding 9 penalty corners will give the upcoming opposition great hope. With the next match against Germany, coach Oltmans will have to sort out the issue to make sure that Germany do not get the same opportunities India gave to Ireland.