The quarterfinal door could turn out to be difficult to open for the Indian junior men’s hockey team in the ongoing 10th Junior Men’s World Cup being played at the Major Dhyan Chand National Hockey Stadium in New Delhi.
The Manpreet Singh-led side have only sparkled in patches but failed to fire collectively as a team on a consistent basis. Individual brilliances have been the order of the day, but the overall the team hasn’t really shown signs of consistently playing as a team.
And the concluding league game against Korea on Tuesday is a make-or-break game for the hosts. Both India and Korea are on three points, but the latter will sneak through even with a draw by virtue of their superior goal average. Given this scenario, the onus is on India to throw a serious challenge to the Koreans – it is they who will have to make things happen on Tuesday.
The ‘early goal’ syndrome is putting a big psychological dent on the minds of the Indians and they would really have to keep their defence tight right from the starting hooter to the end of play against Korea. The sight of Indian defence exposing their chinks is not something coach Gregg Clarke would like to see in what could be his last assignment with the national side.
Talking of tactics, Clarke must look to play the likes of Akashdeep Singh, Mandeep Singh and Ramandeep Singh together for longer periods instead of swapping through the rolling substitution route.
Skipper Manpreet Singh will have to come up with a big effort and control the midfield against Korea because once India towers over the midfield, the forwardline would wear a refreshingly different look.
The Indian defence should make an effort to make life easy for in-form goalie Harjot Singh and not leave him at the mercy of opposition attacks. Hockey fans will be keen to see Indian make it to the quarterfinals as an early exit will not be a great advertisement for the tournament as big as the junior world cup.
Drag-flicker Gurjinder Singh has been one of the finds of this tournament and has been distinctly unlucky not to have scored more than two goals in the tournament had it not for sloppy work by the ball ejector and stopper during the short corner routine. Hopefully, the players involved in the short corner exercise will do a better job and help ‘Gogi’ (Gurjinder’s nickname) rifle in his power-packed flicks into the rival goalmouth.
India will need them to chart out their quarterfinal path!
Pictures Courtesy FIH
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