Asia Cup 2025: Seasoned journalist Sundeep Misra and Alan John join hands to review India's performance against Korea in the first round of Super 4s in Rajgir.
00:00Hello and welcome to ITGD Sports with me Alan John and today we have a special guest Sandeep Mishra sir, a great you know I just sat with him for a couple of minutes I was just taken aback by the knowledge of hockey that he has.
00:14He just gave me a stat about 1989 when I was not even born about this India vs Korea match and you know I was just blown away and it's an honor to have you sir joining us. He will be with us till the final he's going to be here 7th and we are going to be discussing what happened today.
00:32So let's start off with the first match sir. It was Japan vs Chinese Taipei. I thought it was going to be a far more one-sided contest but credit to Chinese Taipei. They did a brilliant job. They stopped it and obviously Japan would be a little disappointed.
00:48I think so. I mean if you really look at Japan's record over the last 3-4 years especially since the time they won the 2018 Asian Games gold medal in Jakarta. At the time everything was okay for them in terms of the coaching formats you know the assistant coaches and all of that.
01:05But after that once the formats were broken in terms of coaching aspects I think they have struggled. They have literally struggled and you know the big point that we keep making about the Super 4s and Japan or other teams is India over the last 6-7 years has been consistently playing at the top level tournaments.
01:25Most of the Asian nations haven't got an opportunity. So it's easy to say that they are lagging behind but it's also I think one needs to analyze the fact that because they don't get top grade competition they are unable to move up and that is probably something that the FIH needs to look into.
01:44So Japan in that sense I think will come good if you really see the players. I think once the coaches settle down you know they get this 3-4 years with the team that's the time when the team starts moving.
01:55And now let's talk about the second game Malaysia versus China. I was you know we were all expecting it to be a very tight game and it was it was just like a chess game and then in the third quarter Malaysia turned it on. They won 2-0 and so how do you rate that performance from Malaysia?
02:15They are 4 out of 4 right now and they face India next.
02:20I think if you really need to pick a point you know where you probably want to say okay this is the blame area I think I'll put it on the bench of the Chinese.
02:32At the end of the day if you're really going to get into fights if you're really going to get into those kind of arguments where you want to pick up cards either of the team.
02:40But what happens is with the experience of Malaysia they can still come back.
02:45But with China whose experience at this level or even at the top level is so so less that for them to come back after a skirmish right in the middle of the pitch it gets very difficult to get your focus back.
02:58At that moment of time one needs to understand the Malaysian coach Sarjit. He's been I mean I've seen him since the time he played the Barcelona Olympics and then played the World Cup qualifying.
03:10He's been a fantastic centre-half since then later on became a coach. In fact when in when Malaysia beat India at the 2002 World Cup I think he was one of the assistant coaches under Paul Lisek the German legend.
03:22So Sarjit knows where to take the opportunity and at that moment of time I think he turned the game around. He knew the Chinese were slightly you know jittery and that's when Malaysia took it away.
03:35Now we'll come back to Malaysia again because India are going to play Malaysia next. Now coming to the Indian game what was your feelings? Was it disappointment or was it the fact that oh thank god that we finally managed to get a point.
03:50So was it an opportunity missed or was it something that you know they just were able to edge out at the end?
03:57Well I asked a couple of players this the same question but for me the game was extremely technical.
04:05Don't look at the first quarter second quarter don't look at the game like that. Look at the game from just one angle trapping.
04:13This game is just about that one basic element that every team practices on. Korea right from the day they have come into the fray leave alone the teams that were before 1990 even after 1990 all the teams that actually played under Park all of them were so good at trapping that you know they may lose a game but technically they were perfect.
04:38Today I think it also makes anybody who understands the game who enjoys the game to look at these technical aspects.
04:47I think India would have still got through with the kind of opportunities they have but the Koreans knew what they were doing.
04:54I think for a brief moment of time in the fourth quarter if India would have held back I think it would have probably made sense to the bench to the players but I think they went in so many times that it actually got to them as to why the hell are we not scoring.
05:09The reason you were not scoring is because they were soaking in you so much that they were so adapted when you see the highlights you will actually see that that they were taking it out so beautifully and I think that also is a momentum that also is a rhythm that most defensive teams when they play defensive they get into and I think today Korea was excellent in that aspect.
05:32India has always been excellent in attacking but it's always whether you want to get those goals when where how all of those things I think Craig today must be extremely disappointed.
05:43You know one of the things that yes during the Kasakistan game when I asked Manpreet and when I asked coach Fulton one of the things that they said was the stress on creating penalty corners because the biggest weapon that we have is Harmanpreet Singh but today there was almost I think at a point we were just not trying to create PCs.
06:07Is that a big concern for you going forward and also the fact that our forwards are still not clicking.
06:14It's almost like you know they're just one pass away or just one step behind from getting a beautiful goal. Is that what you feel like if you had to analyze this performance today.
06:24I think let me ask you something that when you saw the Indians move in just imagine or just think about the space that they were getting.
06:34They were getting the space. Abhishek got the space. Mandip got the space. Dilpreet got the space.
06:39Now why were they getting the space is something that we need to think about.
06:42The Koreans were moving away to the side. They didn't want number one to give a PC away.
06:47But number 26 I'm forgetting the name of the goalkeeper. He was getting the frontal shots.
06:53Frontal shots are easier than penalty corners to take and that is one reason why the Koreans let you come in enabled you to use that space probably made you a little greedy that okay I'm getting the space let me take a reverse.
07:10I think we saw Abhishek missing. He had a ball which was straight on a direct shot but he yet went into that because he knew that if he gets a reverse off he might get a deflection.
07:21But I think that's the beautiful aspect about the third and the fourth quarter is that they gave us space and they kind of crowded us out on the sides but they never got their feet in.
07:33I think that was so brilliant from the Koreans and I'm seeing this after a long long time from a Korean side.
07:40And you know now coming to tomorrow's game India vs Malaysia they need to quickly regroup.
07:45And you know one of the funniest things was I was asking the coach because I thought Akimula Anwar who's been who scored 10 goals he was not playing in the first two quarters.
07:56Now I was surprised. I thought is he carrying a niggle? Is he going to be unavailable for the India game? No I went and asked the coach.
08:03The coach gave me a beautiful answer. He said no we were playing the low block. So Akimula is not a good player when it comes to the low block.
08:11Then I asked him again so are you going to use that against India? He had a sly smile and it's kind of you know evident that they might be using this.
08:20Even Craig Fulton said when I asked him that you know if they are going to use it how do you counter it?
08:28He said against the best team you are going to do that. So is that going to be the plan that Malaysia will use tomorrow here in Rajgir?
08:36I honestly doubt it. I mean whatever little I know about Sarjit. And also I think we all need to understand that when a good let's say one of the better centre-halves of his time becomes a coach.
08:49They think centre-half. You know number seven I'm again forgetting the name of the player.
08:54Number seven is the kind of a player that Sarjit used to be. Moving in and out the libero you know he's holding the ball.
09:02He's understanding the situation of where the forwards are. I think the first quarter is going to be so crucial to India and this is what history says constantly.
09:12India gets couple of goals in or even if it's a 3-1-2-1 situation India will ram its way through.
09:20But if the first quarter is goalless or if Malaysia score once then India comes into a shell.
09:26You know it's always said about Dilpreet that why is he not opening up as a centre-forward. I think it's because he goes into a shell when he misses.
09:34I think that last match where he kept missing, he kept missing, he kept missing and then suddenly that 15 score line and then the whole team celebrated because he got the goal in.
09:44I think that aspect of Dilpreet is slightly, I think, that shows that the player is very edgy.
09:52And I think Malaysia will try and counter the forwards on that. But Sarjit I think as a centre-half and then now a coach.
10:01I don't know whether he'll do the low block or he's going to wait for the Indians to come in to take the ball away.
10:07But he is going to go all out in the first quarter because that is where he can catch us snapping.
10:13And let's also be a little critical our goalkeeping is not up the mark. I don't think those goals, at least the first goal, the penalty corner goal was extremely soft.
10:24Goalkeeper knows or should be able to get down. If you are unable to get down, there is some issue happening in terms of you reading a PC.
10:33That means you have not been on the video monitor too much. But I think, let's hope that the Malaysians will not come at us with that kind of ferocity.
10:43So after this game, I know it's early days, but let's just say if you are going to predict who are going to be in the final, do you still feel India can make it?
10:53Absolutely. You know, today's game could have easily gone 5-2. Could have easily gone 5-2. Only if they wouldn't have gone all that crazy in the circle.
11:03They could have easily drawn the ball out. They could have crowded the Koreans more, getting the feet more, getting more pieces more.
11:10I think they got six or seven penalty corners, you know, which is where you need to still score 30%, 40%.
11:16Listen, any 30%, 40% score of a penalty corner is brilliant. You actually don't get too many of those pieces in because these guys are very, very adept at reading videos.
11:26Right.
11:27So I think in that sense, I still believe it could be an India-Malaysia, it could be an India-Korea because I think somewhere China is kind of burning themselves off.
11:37So I think we have got our verdict right now, at least for today. Now we come back tomorrow, we'll have India versus Malaysia. An important game, Korea versus China in the mix of things because super force is now heating up.
11:53We had the rain today, which kind of cooled down things for a little bit. We had to wait for 50 minutes or so. But yeah, we will be back tomorrow. Let's hope the rain stays away.
12:04We get better conditions and we get a better performance from India as well. So this is me, Alan John.
12:10Thank you so much for this.
12:12Yeah, and Sandeep Mishra sir also, who is going to be here. And you're going to hear a lot more about hockey going forward. So thank you guys and see you all tomorrow.
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