Hockey World Cup

[Smudge]

Go Bond !!!

Excellent Fraz!

 

[Gajanayake]

It's on Saturday morning at 1am our time I think. I'm considering getting up, but I'll probably just watch the replay at 8:30 instead. I value my sleep.

To be honest I think whoever wins could just be which team gives away the least PCs. With Shaw and Abbas around you can't afford to concede many PCs in a tight game. We scored 2 out of 3 today, while defensively we saved 2 out of 2, so hopefully we can keep that good record going.

NZL really need to beat Pakistan in order to make the semis and vice versa.
A draw may not be enough for either team given that Spain and Australia await both teams and in Pakistan's case, the unpredictable Argentines.

On a side note, does anyone know hy Jorge Lombi is not playing for ARgentina this tournament ? Has he retired ?

 

[Salamuddin]

Pakistan had better not stuff up against Japan today - c'mon Sohail -- I want at least 3 goals today.

 

[Salamuddin]

Pakistan crushed Japan 4-0....c'mon my Pakistani tigers......


hahah India lost 3-2 to England of all teams........

 

[superkingdave]

could be Englands only win of the comp

 

[Sir Redman]

NZL really need to beat Pakistan in order to make the semis and vice versa.
A draw may not be enough for either team given that Spain and Australia await both teams and in Pakistan's case, the unpredictable Argentines.

Yeah I know, Argentina - Pakistan - Japan are the absolutely must-win games for us which would give us a good shot at making the semis. If we draw then it will mean we'll need to beat Australia or Spain (or possibly both).

On a side note, does anyone know hy Jorge Lombi is not playing for ARgentina this tournament ? Has he retired ?

Don't know about that, but did anyone hear the story about why Indian player Sandeep Singh is not playing? The commentators said yesterday that he was involved in a freak accident on a train on the way to a training camp. One of the guards was cleaning his revolver, which was loaded and went off, hitting him in the back. Apparently he might never play hockey again. Kind of funny in a 'how can people be so stupid' way, but you have to feel sorry for him.

 

[Matteh]

Germany to win IMO

 

[Sir Redman]

New Zealand 4 - 4 Pakistan

****. I can't believe it. We conceeded a couple of soft goals that really cost us in this game. We had a lot of the play in the second half and should have put in one or two more after we got up 4-3. It was a funny game in a way - there were three penalty strokes, one for Pakistan and two for NZ. I thought that Pakistan's attackers generally looked more dangerous with the ball than ours did (Phil Burrows had a very quiet game, maybe he didn't recover from the knock he took inside the first ten seconds) but overall I thought we had the better chances from open play. Surprisingly, Pakistan didn't convert any of their penalty corners; our keeper made two great saves from them but could have done so much better with two of Pakistan's field goals.

This result means that we're going to have to score an upset over Australia or Spain (assuming we beat Japan, which we should) or hope like hell that Argentina do us a few favours.

Oh and one other thing - the scoreline is one of many reasons why hockey is so much better than football. There's so many more goals.

 

[Matteh]

Oh and one other thing - the scoreline is one of many reasons why hockey is so much better than football. There's so many more goals.

Such an American way of thinking

 

[Sir Redman]

Such an American way of thinking

Boooooo. That doesn't necessarily make it an American way of thinking, you know. If it was, then I'd want to see Powerplays and Supersubs and also each player being covered in full body armour so they can smash into each other like a bunch of horny Neanderthals.

 

[Matteh]

Boooooo. That doesn't necessarily make it an American way of thinking, you know.

The main reason Americans hate football is because a game can be played and it's very possible for no goals to be scored plus they can't take it when there's a draw.

 

[Sir Redman]

The main reason Americans hate football is because a game can be played and it's very possible for no goals to be scored plus they can't take it when there's a draw.

Yeah I know that, I've read the 'its so boring' argument squillions of times. Its not necessarily the fact that in general scores a far higher in hockey, it's more that its just way more attacking by nature. For example, take a "standard" football formation of 4-4-2. Compare that to a standard hockey formation which would be 2-3-5 and you can see why there's a far higher emphasis on attack.

Now, I've got nothing against draws, and scoreless draws aren't always bad games, but in general there's far less potential for a boring stalemate in hockey. Also in its favour are the way players don't roll all over the ground after a tackle, don't surround and harass the ref at every possible opportunity (altough some teams have started taking that up recently ) and aren't all a bunch of overpaid prima donnas like footballers are. Its also the single most skilled game I've ever played. Seriously, until you've played hockey you've got no idea just how unbelievably skilled those guys are. Put it this way - if you took a typical good sportman and threw him in any other sport, whether its football, cricket, tennis or whatever, they would at least be able to do basic skills competently due to their natural sporting ability. If you put them on a hockey field though, the vast majority of them would simply have no clue.

 

[Beleg]

^
Top post.

Pakistan face a similiar situation to NZ. Only in our case, we are up against Argentina who might be slightly tougher to beat then Japan.

 

[Matteh]

Yeah I know that, I've read the 'its so boring' argument squillions of times. Its not necessarily the fact that in general scores a far higher in hockey, it's more that its just way more attacking by nature. For example, take a "standard" football formation of 4-4-2. Compare that to a standard hockey formation which would be 2-3-5 and you can see why there's a far higher emphasis on attack.

Now, I've got nothing against draws, and scoreless draws aren't always bad games, but in general there's far less potential for a boring stalemate in hockey. Also in its favour are the way players don't roll all over the ground after a tackle, don't surround and harass the ref at every possible opportunity (altough some teams have started taking that up recently ) and aren't all a bunch of overpaid prima donnas like footballers are. Its also the single most skilled game I've ever played. Seriously, until you've played hockey you've got no idea just how unbelievably skilled those guys are. Put it this way - if you took a typical good sportman and threw him in any other sport, whether its football, cricket, tennis or whatever, they would at least be able to do basic skills competently due to their natural sporting ability. If you put them on a hockey field though, the vast majority of them would simply have no clue.

All of this is fairplay and i agree. I used to play hockey a couple of years ago mostly on a bumpy grass pitch and just simply stopping the ball and taking control of a pass was ridiculously hard.

 

[Kweek]

well..we have astro nowadays
and I disagree it being technical hard...cricket is the hardest sport ive ever played tecnically wise when batting....I love my hockey, but is messes up my batting technique...

 

[Sir Redman]

All of this is fairplay and i agree. I used to play hockey a couple of years ago mostly on a bumpy grass pitch and just simply stopping the ball and taking control of a pass was ridiculously hard.

Yeah, playing on grass turns it into a bit of a lottery. It's much easier on astroturf, especially trapping the ball, though the problem with that is that you get grazes galore whenever you touch the ground (on sand turf anyway, its better on water turf).

Anyway, results from this morning:

Pool A
Australia 4 - 0 Argentina
New Zealand 1- 0 Japan

Pool B
South Africa 1 - 1 India
Germany 2 - 2 Netherlands

I haven't seen our game yet (replay starts in five minutes) but it sounds as though we played like crap. Oh well, at least we got the win and we go top of Pool A after 3 games. Crunch matches coming up.

 

[Matteh]

Germany 2 - 2 Netherlands

Honours even sees me and Tarick happy.

 

[Sir Redman]

I think an update is in order.

Firstly, the most important news: NZ fell to pieces against Australia (always happens, no matter what sport we can never beat them when it really matters), losing 7-1. We conceded inside the first minute, dragged it back to 1-1 and then had a couple of golden opportunities to go ahead...we missed them though. After that, Australia got a goal after one of their forwards kicked the ball in the build-up play (freaking blind refs) and from then on it all turned to custard. We had to beat Australia to make the semis after we lost to Spain 3-1 the day before, another game in which we had some simple chances to score goals but failed. [Excuses mode] We weren't exactly helped by the scheduling, 5 games in 7 days is bloody difficult for a sport as fast as hockey is, and I think our players were stuffed by the end of it. [/Excuses mode]

In other news, Netherlands failed to qualify after a scoreless draw between Germany and Korea. All three teams were on ten points but Germany and Korea had the one game left to play, and the resulting draw ensured both teams went through. Considering that scoreless draws happen once in a blue moon in hockey I'm sure there are plenty of Dutch people muttering darkly about hacked results.

So the results tables are:

Pool A

[U]Team             P    W    D    L    GF    GA    [b]PTS[/b][/U] 
Australia	 5    4    0    1    18     5     [B]12[/B]	
Spain	         5    3    2    0    13     7     [B]11[/B]	
New Zealand      5    2    1    2    10    14      [B]7[/B]	
Pakistan	 5    1    2    2    10    10      [B]5[/B]	
Argentina        5    1    1    3     5    12      [B]4[/B]
Japan            5    1    0    4     7    15      [B]3[/B]

Pool B

[U]Team             P    W    D    L    GF    GA    [b]PTS[/b][/U]
Germany	         5    3    2    0    12     5     [B]11[/B]	
Korea	         5    3    2    0     8     5     [B]11[/B]	
Netherlands      5    3    1    1    16     9     [B]10[/B]	
England	         5    2    0    3    10    10      [B]6[/B]	
South Africa     5    0    2    3     4    13      [B]2[/B]
India            5    0    1    4     7    15      [B]1[/B]

So Australia vs Korea and Germany vs Spain in the semi-finals. NZ, Pakistan, Netherlands and England are playing off for 5th-8th while Argentina, Japan, South Africa and India will play off for 9th-12th.

We're against England first, the winner plays off against the winner of Pakistan-Netherlands for 5th while the loser plays against the other loser for 7th.

England have been quite impressive this tournament, kind-of like NZ in that few people have rated them outside their own country but have actually been builing up a good set of results in the last 18 months or so. That said though, I'll be spewing if we don't beat them.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

In other news, Netherlands failed to qualify after a scoreless draw between Germany and Korea. All three teams were on ten points but Germany and Korea had the one game left to play, and the resulting draw ensured both teams went through. Considering that scoreless draws happen once in a blue moon in hockey I'm sure there are plenty of Dutch people muttering darkly about hacked results.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/Sport...in-hockey-semis/2006/09/14/1157827048104.html

Only a draw ensured qualification for both teams and the final 10 minutes saw the two sides hit the ball around the backfield when in possession to boos and whistles from the Dutch supporters.

No need to mutter, really: this rivals the classic Germany v Austria deal.

 

[Matteh]

Played Germany