Analysis of the India-Netherlands Match

Overall

1. Nearly equal entry into opponents half, i.e midfield play but in storming of the rival’s citadel, the Dutch forays were more dangerous & many more.

2. It appeared that the Dutch timing was off or the Indian defence had a lucky day since they were always there to thwart potentially dangerous situations, the lone exception being the silly goal scored by Van Der Horst when the whole Indian defence went to sleep and showed a propensity to allow the sweeper to walk in all alone & score off a Chetri mistake (quite contrary to media reports Chetri had a sub-par day, steady at times, mistake prone at times ).

3. Distinct impression is that “hope this does not translate into India’s best match, “since we cannot be sure whether they can sustain it as the competition heats up & legs get tired.”

4. No team that converts 100% PC’s will lose so India does not need to feel despondent. Plus only 2 were given away which is probably a record for India.

5. Good play overall—many positivesIndian defense played well. The team has definitely improved. They are quicker, faster—plus the self pass has made a lot of difference and was very effectively utilized. In fact, all the self pass 1 v 1 battles were won by the Indians. The dribblers are going to rule the roost in future. That augments well for India.

6. Defensively, midfield was terrible with no cohesion or structure and had a distinct tendency to lose shape with one well placed pass. There were plenty of missed passes. In attack, particularly in the second half, they were adequate particularly when Sardara weaved his magic in the centre.

This was the first look in a serious competition at our new look, new philosophy Indian team (i.e attack minded) of Coach Nobbs. Considering the personnel he was handed over with no veto possibility on his part, not having seen the hundreds of players all over India, he has performed quite well. There certainly are positives but in other aspects nothing has changed —defensive skill set of most of the players with a few prominent exceptions is still woefully weak. Midfield is still missing, though defense appeared to be more sure.

Positives

1. Use of the self pass without a doubt.2. Passing all over the pitch is infinitely better, both from attacking & defensive positions.3. The team is fitter & plays faster & passes ball quicker.4. Trapping has improved a lot.5. Defense has improved.6. Hockey confidence of all players has distinctly improved & they are no more struggling to contain the Dutch.7. Midfield attack is now more fluid & now on par with international standards.

Negatives

1. Midfield is the stumbling block, woefully weak defensively, positionally defective particularly in the middle of the pitch. Leave too many gaps, playing extremely “open”. In contrast, in attack they are very good, though the hard cracks into the goal need to be severely curtailed. In the first half, Sardara was off-color and was releasing the ball very early. But mainly their tendency to be caught out of position hurt the team —-that is faulty coaching —too many people in attack and when you get caught with those hard hits in the circle being blocked off —leads to a very dangerous counterattack. The Dutch had many but luckily the Indian defense was there and at times in the 2nd half the Dutch were unlucky.

The midfield had a difficult time understanding the Dutch combination play in midfield & that is because of no rotation by the outside halfback to come into the centre and compress the field. Overall, midfield let the team down—central control was missing. They made things worse by allowing a silly goal by the sweeper Van Der Horst — nobody wanted to defend that run and the goalie let in a silly goal. No opinion is complete without praising the person I consider half the team—Sardara Singh, absolutely sublime in attack, with his weaving & defense splitting passes, but patchy in defense with some brilliance, yet some downright pedestrian play. A class player like him deserves to do more in controlling the center of the field, when he tends to rove about and leave it open. What is scary is the amount of time he is putting on the pitch and its inevitable toll on his playing ability as the rigors of the competition takes its toll. No doubt the Indian team plays well when Sardara does.

Rest of the midfielders were rather pedestrian leaving us to wonder whether there are not any better players in India. Manpreet, Birendra, Danish were just adequate, with Gurbaj being a shade better, though defensively inadequate.

2. Defense—a real pleasant surprise. Solid tackles, good positioning, Ignace Tirkey being surprisingly good and even Raghunath having a solid game. Sandeep Singh, on the other hand, is a disaster waiting to happen which it nearly did on a few occasions. Playing him just 16 mins in the match is one of the smartest things Nobbs did. India has a real problem with him with his proven match winning prowess at PCs yet match losing defensive problems. The move to play him at centre forward should be continued and encouraged.

3. Forwards played well except Shivender, who was terrible. He made many mistakes. He had many chances to put the game away for India but let his country down. The movement down the flanks was very good and so was the speed of play. Sunil is going to be a handful with his speed and the key is for his fellow forwards to set him up in the right space for him to create and score. Tushar, Chandi had a good game. Uthappa maybe would have played better more in his traditional central midfield position where he is very good.

The Dutch are still far better but surprisingly the self dribble is causing them big problems. Lots of runs by India had them in trouble , though not as dangerous as their rival forays. Overall a good performance by India, probably the best that has been seen in a long time. There were defensive mistakes all over the pitch but then, we know that going in.