Best available team has been picked: Nobbs

New Delhi: Brushing aside the controversy surrounding the exclusion of former India captains Rajpal Singh and Arjun Halappa from the team picked to play the Olympic qualifiers, the coach of the Indian men’s hockey team - Michael Nobbs - says the team has been selected from the best available resources.

Hockey India (HI) on Monday announced the squad of final 18, which didn't include the names of Rajpal and Halappa. While the former has been deemed unfit due to his appendix operation, Halappa could find his name only among the four standbys.

"The team is picked on form and fitness and I think this is the group that we need for the next three weeks to qualify for the Olympics," Nobbs said while addressing a press conference here on Tuesday with captain Bharat Chetri and vice-captain Sardar Singh alongside him.

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"Let me explain, there were six of us in that room there, with probably combined 16 to 18 Olympic games under our belt. I think we know what we are doing," the coach replied to questions surrounding the exclusion of Rajpal and Halappa.

"Selection policy is with the selectors of Hockey India. I'm not going into that [team selection]. We have to pick the best right now who can win games for us and that's what we have done. Now we need to focus on what we need to do in the next few weeks to qualify [for the Olympics]."

Rajpal had alleged that he was not given a chance to prove his fitness; however, the coach refuted that claim. "No, that's not the case," he clarified.

Chetri - who will lead India in the qualifiers - was visibly miffed when confronted with questions related to team selection.

"Are you trying to say that those who have been picked are not capable? The fit players who have been chosen are not the bad players. There are the selectors, Hockey India and coaches [who select the team]. Our job is to play as a team that has been chosen," the captain replied.

The team's vice-captain and star midfielder Sardar Singh also toed his coach's line while staying confident of an Olympic berth.

"I'm pretty sure we will qualify [for the Olympics]. No doubt they [Rajpal and Halappa] are excellent players, but if you had seen the South Africa series, those who performed the best are in the team now. The rest, as [Bharat] Chetri has said, it's the selectors of Hockey India who have picked the team," Sardar said.

India face Canada, France, Poland, Singapore and Italy in the qualifiers; and Nobbs said though no game can be taken lightly at the international level, he was confident of India's chances of winning the tournament and booking a flight to London.

"No team is going to be taken lightly. As I have said, there are no easy games at this level. We just have to prepare as well as we can and control all the things that we can control and try our best. I am quite confident [of Olympic qualification], provided nothing goes drastically wrong in these qualifiers," Nobbs concluded.

India will open their campaign on February 18 against Singapore, who got a lucky entry after USA withdrew from the tournament at the eleventh hour.

Six Indians in Asian All Stars hockey team

Past masters of the game, India got recognition for playing some good hockey in last month's Asian Games in Guangzhou, China with as many as six of its players making it to the Asian All Stars team. Ace drag-flicker, Sandeep Singh shared the honours with captain Rajpal Singh, midfielder Arjun Halappa and defender Gurbaj Singh in the men's category while in the women's section defender Joydeep Kaur and 16-year-old striker Rani Rampal made the cut, according to a Hockey India release.

The All Star team was selected recently by the Asian Hockey Federation based on the performance of the Guangzhou Games, where the Indian men's team won a bronze medal but the eves missed out on the podium, finishing fourth. The two teams selected by the Asian Hockey Federation are as under: Men: Goalkeepers: Kumar Subramaniam (Malaysia), Salman Akbar (Pakistan) Defenders: Md. Razie (Malaysia), Sandeep Singh (India), Gurbaj Singh (India), Hu Huiren (China) Midfielders: Yeo Woon Kon (Korea), Lee Nam Yong (Korea), Tsuvouchi Kazuhiro (Japan), Ozawa Kazuyuki (Japan), Arjun Halappa (India), Rashid Muhammad (Pakistan) Forwards: Rajpal Singh (India), Seo Jongho (Korea), Jang Jong Hyun (Korea), Tenku Abdul Rahid Jalil (Malaysia), Rehan Butt (Pakistan), Na Yubo (China) Women: Goalkeepers: Zhang Yimeng (China), Lee Seon OK (Korea) Defenders: Ma Yibo (China), Li Shuang (China), Joydeep Kaur (India), Mayumi Ono (Japan), Irina Dobrioglo (Kazakhstan) Ratnaporn Shangpranam (Thailand) Midfielders: Song Quingling (China), Park Seonmi (Korea), Kim Darae (Korea), Yukari Yamamoto (Japan), Nadia Abdul Rehman (Malaysia) Forwards: Zhao Yudiao (China), Fu Baorong (China), Park Mi Hyun (Korea), Rani (India), Kaori Chiba (Japan). -PTI

Asian games: India defeat Korea to win bronze in men's hockey

The Indian men's hockey team lifted itself from the disappointment of missing a final berth and clinched the bronze medal after defeating four-time champions South Korea in the third-place playoff at the Asian Games here today. India beat the 2002 and 2006 champions with a lone second half goal through Tushar Khandekar to end their campaign on a better note than four years ago in Doha where they ended up a poor fifth.

Having their dreams of winning the gold destroyed by the 3-4 defeat against Malaysia in the semifinals, the Rajpal Singh-led side outsmarted the fitter and faster Koreans. By virtue of this bronze, India ended their eight year-long medal drought in the quadrennial event after having finished on the podium (silver) in the 2002 Busan Games. India's win also ended double defending champions South Korea's honeymoon in Asian Games hockey.
This is the first instance since the 1986 Seoul Games that they finished without a medal. India held on to the 40th minute field goal notched by Khandekar who, left unmarked in front of the Korean goal, pushed in a long diagonal hit into the D sent in by Gurbaj Singh, for the all-important goal at the Aoti hockey field. The Indians kept the pace down in the first half against the speedy Koreans and then upped the ante in the second half in which they got their match-winner but also muffed a couple of golden opportunities to score more.
The player of the match for India was goalkeeper Bharat Chetri who brought off fine saves in defending the penalty corners in which the Koreans are adept with variations. Korea earned two penalty corners in the opening half and one in the second but all came to naught due to Chetri's fine stint under the Indian bar who leaped to his right and blocked the drag-flicks from the rival players. India were also unsuccessful with the two penalty corner efforts they got, one of which taken indirectly when Sandeep Singh relayed the ball to Dhananjay Mahadik who essayed a shot that should have gone in but for Korean defender and captain Lee Nam Yong making a goal-line save in the 24th minute.
The second half was completely dominated by the Indians who did not allow the Koreans to penetrate their D except once when the latter got a short corner award that was hotly disputed as the ball rose off the stick of Bharat Chikara, who tried to block a through pass from Kim Youngjin, and hit a Korean forward inside the penalty circle.
Luckily for India, the Koreans could not convert this gift given to them by Pakistan umpire H Rasool into the equalizer that they were desperately searching for. The Indian defence held on to the early second half lead given by Khandekar till the end and walked off with the bronze. The Indians should have scored two more goals but for the misses by Rajpal Singh in the 50th minute off a centre from the left by Sardar Singh. Khandekar had all the time in the world to put the ball in and complete a brace in the 63rd minute from the top of the circle but hit it wide of the post, after Rajpal did the spadework.
Coach Jose Brasa, whose stint has come to an end with the end of India's campaign in the Games, raised a controversy after the match saying that the late equaliser by Malaysia against India should not have been awarded at all. "The equaliser against us in the semifinal (off a short corner award) was no penalty corner at all. We saw the video of the match and that penalty corner should not have been given, just as the penalty corner today awarded against us in the second half was no penalty corner," said the Spaniard. Overall Brasa said the Indians had played good hockey throughout the tournament. "We played very good hockey but I am not happy that we are not going back with the gold medal.
Today we controlled the game very well and did not allow the Koreans to touch our D at all in the second half. We had the opportunity to score the second and third goals," he said about the missed chances in the second half. He also rubbished reports that the entire support staff of the team had resigned. Skipper Rajpal said though the team did not achieve the purpose for which it came here, to win gold and qualify for the London Olympic Games in 2012, he was confident it will make it to the Olympics through the forthcoming qualifiers if it can play the way it did today. "The purpose for which we came here was not achieved. We played very god hockey today and if we continue to play the way we did today we should qualify for the Olympics," he said. Sardar Singh said the team was happy to play under Brasa.
"It will be good if he stays on. If you have seen the team play before (Brasa's arrival) and here you would notice the difference. The entire team is happy to play under Brasa. "We have played well in this tournament but for the last 4-5 minutes (of regular time) against Malaysia," he added. Goalkeeper Chetri said that the team was motivated after the shock defeat against Malaysia to go back from here with at least one medal. "We were motivated to win a medal. We are happy we could do it though it is not the gold," he said.

India beat Pakistan 3-2 to move into Asiad semifinals

AFP, Nov 20, 2010

GUANGZHOU: Sandeep Singh scored two goals as India stormed into the Asian Games men's hockey semifinals with a 3-2 win over Pakistan Saturday, their fourth success over their arch-rivals this year.

In Pics: India beat Pakistan

The penalty corner specialist slammed one in each half and Dharamvir Singh chipped in with the third goal as India recorded their third consecutive win in group B after an action-packed encounter.

India have nine points ahead of Sunday's last league match against Japan, who are level with Pakistan on six points each.

India beat Pakistan 4-1 at the World Cup in March, won 4-2 in the Azlan Shah tournament in Malaysia in May and hammered the rivals 7-4 at last month's Commonwealth Games.

"Winning four times in a row does not matter, this is not a series," said Indian captain Rajpal Singh. "What is more important for me is that we play well in every match.

"Our strategy was simple. We had to attack from the start and not give Pakistan too many penalty corners."

Pakistan's lone penalty corner, which came in the 58th minute, did not succeed as Indian goalkeeper Bharat Chetri leaped in the air to deflect Sohail Abbas' stinging drag flick.

Pakistan captain Zeeshan Ashraf blasted the umpiring, saying poor decisions throughout the match cost his team the match.

"The umpires made the difference," he said. "We should have got at least three or four more penalty corners.

"I don't think there is any difference between the two teams. It was a close game that could have gone either way.

"India also got only three scoring chances in the entire game, but they converted all."

Pakistan's Dutch coach Michel van den Heuvel, who watched the match from the stands, argued with the umpires and technical officials after the final whistle.

Zeeshan denied Pakistan will protest, but wanted his team to recover quickly from the defeat and prepare for the rest of the tournament.

"The main thing is we are still in contention for the gold medal," he said. "We will bounce back."

The match, watched by some 1,000 fans at the small Aoti Hockey Centre, began on a rousing note as Sandeep put India ahead in the second minute and striker Rehan Butt drew level for Pakistan in the fourth.

India took a 2-1 lead by half-time as Dharamvir swooped on a pass from the centre to flick the ball past the rushing goalkeeper Salman Akbar in the 16th minute.

An error from Indian defender Dhananjay Mahadik, who failed to clear a loose ball, allowed veteran Shakeel Abbasi to net Pakistan's equaliser eight minutes into the second session.

India earned their second penalty corner five minutes later and Sandeep once again executed a perfect flick to make it 3-2.

Pakistan, who won the last of their seven Asian Games gold medals in Beijing in 1990, have not bagged a major title since the World Cup triumph in Sydney in 1994.

They face Bangladesh on Sunday, needing a win to move into the semifinals.