Re: Champions Trophy begins in Kuala lumpur
Well well what can I say? It’s quite hard for me to make any sense of the results. 3-3 draw against Korea!! A welcome result but should we call it another upset after our 1-4 drubbing by Britain the other day?
A team that beats Spain 2-0 (who beat England 5-0 and Australia 3-2; drew with Holland 3-3 and Korea 2-2 and lost equally badly against Germany 1-4) draws with Korea 3-3 (who beat Holland 6-2 and Australia 1-0; drew with Spain 2-2 and narrowly lost against Germany 1-2) and loses narrowly against Australia 1-2 should not be losing against Britain (who we have traditionally beaten easily in most major tournaments) or drawing with lowly-rated Malaysia (I know they have improved but we should still be able to beat them 8 or 9 times out of 10!)
It clearly shows that the problem is not mainly lack of skill or stamina but in the minds of the players. The self-belief and confidence is not there. They just don’t expect to win these days whereas previously esp. in the early-mid 80s and maybe even in early 90s they would have tried to fight their way back from difficult positions. Hence the indifferent results that we are seeing at the moment.
http://www.championstrophy2007.sportcentric.com/vsite/vcontent/page/custom/0,8510,5169-186674-203896-44264-279604-custom-item,00.html](http://www.championstrophy2007.sportcentric.com/vsite/vcontent/page/custom/0,8510,5169-186674-203896-44264-279604-custom-item,00.html)
Germany seems to be the best team in this tournament having not lost a single game so far
v Britain 4-0
v Pak 5-2
v Spain 4-1
v Korea 2-1
v Holland 3-3
v Malaysia 3-2
But it’s not just Pakistan. Germany for instance beat Korea but could not beat Holland (who were spanked 2-6 by Korea) which shows that it all boils down to how you play as a team on the day.