India's Chances in 2002

In the 1998 World Cup, India's first 3 matches were against Champions Trophy holders Germany, Olympic champion Netherlands, and Asian Games and Asia Cup holders South Korea. India lost to all 3 of them to crash out of the tournament. For the 2002 World Cup, the draw favours India who open their campaign against Japan.

India is fortunate that it is not in the 'Pool of Death' with countries like Holland, Germany, Pakistan and Spain. India has been placed in Pool B along with Australia, England, South Korea, Poland, Japan, Malaysia and Cuba.

Date	Local Time	Matchup
Feb 24	8:05 pm	India vs. Japan
Feb 26	4:05 pm	India vs. Korea
Feb 27	4:35 pm	India vs. Malaysia
Mar 1	6:05 pm	India vs. England
Mar 2	6:05 pm	India vs. Cuba
Mar 4	6:35 pm	India vs. Poland
Mar 5	6:35 pm	India vs. Australia

The World Cup record of the countries in India's pool (Pool B) are given below. Note that Cuba is missing from the table, as it is making its debut in the 2002 World Cup.

Country	World Cups	M	W	D	L	GF	GA	Best Position
India	9	63	31	9	23	129	110	1975 - 1st
Australia	8	56	38	5	13	166	80	1986 - 1st
England	8	57	25	9	23	99	92	1986 - 2nd
Poland	5	36	10	3	23	62	114	1982/86 - 8th
Malaysia	5	36	8	7	21	45	85	1975 - 4th
S Korea	2	14	3	4	7	28	33	1998 - 7th
Japan	2	12	3	2	7	9	25	1971 - 9th

India’s performance against its pool rivals in the World Cup competitions is given below. India has a deficit win-loss record only against Australia, having won only once in 5 attempts.

Opponent	First Match	First Result	M	W	D	L	GF	GA
Australia	1975	Tie Match 1-1	5	1	1	3	6	12
England	1975	India won 2-1	4	3	1	0	8	4
Poland	1978	India won 3-1	3	2	0	1	8	4
Malaysia	1975	India won 3-2	2	2	0	0	9	4
S Korea	1994	India won 2-0	2	1	0	1	5	4
Japan	1973	India won 5-0	1	1	0	0	5	0

It is after a gap of 29 years that Japan has returned to the World Cup. They last participated in the 1973 World Cup at Amsterdam, where they finished 10th.

Date	Tournament	Venue	Result
Mar 2001	PM's Gold Cup	Dhaka	India won 3-1
Jul 2001	Castrol Invitational	Milton Keynes	India won 4-3
Jul 2001	World Cup Qualifier	Edinburgh	India won 2-0 India won 4-3
Dec 2001	Champions Challenge	Kuala Lumpur	India won 3-0

India must take advantage of its opening fixture and start its campaign with an impressive victory. In the past, Japan has never been a threat to India, but they are no minnows in hockey, and are capable of causing the occasional upset. They gave an alarming indication of it in the Champions Challenge tournament by defeating finalist South Africa in a pool match.

Despite their improvement in technique and skill, India must come out triumphant against Japan with a comfortable margin.

The match against South Korea will be a do-or-die affair for India. Two-time Asian Games champion South Korea is the fittest side in the world. India has lost all its matches played against South Korea for the last 3 years. Not only that, Korea has always finished higher than India in all the tournaments played the past 3 years.

Date	Tournament	Result	Final Placings
Aug 2001	Azlan Shah Cup	Korea 3 - India 0	Korea 2nd, India 5th
Sep 2000	Sydney Olympics	Korea 2 - India 0	Korea 2nd, India 7th
Feb 2000	Azlan Shah Cup	Korea 2 - India 1	Korea 2nd, India 3rd
Nov 1999	Asia Cup	Korea 5 - India 4	Korea 1st, India 3rd
Sep 1999	4-Nation Tournament	Korea 6 - India 1	Korea 2nd, India Last

Lately, there has been a decline in South Korea’s performance, as could be seen during the 2001 Champions Trophy where they finished last, losing all their five games. However, South Korea has the ability of bouncing back, their forward line is very agile, and their penalty corner conversion rate is better than India's.

This match is crucial for both the teams, so there will be equal pressure on both sides. The team which can sustain the pressure and take advantage of the chances coming their way will emerge victorious. The chances for India are 50-50.

Malaysia's performance against India has been good on their home soil. They beat India in the semi-finals of the 1998 Commonwealth Games. They again defeated India in the 2001 Champions Challenge tournament.

India and Malaysia played 6 times in 2001, all in Malaysia, and India could win only once in those 6 attempts.

Date	Tournament	Venue	Result
Jun 2001	India-Malaysia 4 Test Series	Malaysia	India won 2-1 Tie Match 0-0 Tie Match 1-1 Tie Match 2-2
Aug 2001	Sultan Azlan Shah Cup	Kuala Lumpur	Tie Match 2-2
Dec 2001	Champions Challenge	Kuala Lumpur	India lost 1-2

These results suggest that India be cautious against this Asian rival, who have the reputed German Paul Lissek as their coach. Malaysia could act as a spoiler. India must win this match, it cannot afford even a draw.

World Cup	Result	Final Placings
1975	India 2 - England 1	India 1st, England 6th
1978	India 1 - England 1	India 6th, England 7th
1982	India 4 - England 2	India 5th, England 9th
1994	India 1 - England 0	India 5th, England 6th

India and England met twice in 2001 - both times at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Kuala Lumpur. India emerged victorious, winning those matches 2-1 and 2-0. This time too, India should come out a winner.

Cuba is making its debut in the World Cup. It qualified for its first ever World Cup by beating Canada in the Pan American Championship. There is no doubt in anyone’s mind of India’s victory in this match, but the point of interest will be the margin of victory. By the time India take on this weakest rival of the pool, the position in the group would have been clear so it will help India in taking most of the advantage out of this game.

Poland is a rough and tough European team that has always troubled India and provided stiff resistance in key matches. Still fresh in the minds of our fans is the last minute goal scored by Poland in the last league encounter, that crushed India's hopes of making it to the Sydney Olympic semi-finals.

India has never defeated this European rival in all of their three outings in the Olympic Games. Out of three World Cup matches against them, India won two but suffered a humiliating defeat at London in 1986. India finished last in the 1986 World Cup.

India and Poland met only once in 2001, in the Edinburgh World Cup qualifier. India got a setback when it lost 1-2 to Poland.

Looking at these embarrassing results, India has to chalk up a robust game plan and strategy before battling out this rival. This match will be a litmus test of Cedric’s ability as a coach and schemer. Cedric is fortunate that Poland has come into the tournament with only 17 players, and without senior players Piotr Mikula, Tomasz Szmidt and Marcin Nyckowiak, all dropped over a dispute with their coach over financial matters

India takes on Australia in its final league match. The gap between India and Australia has become considerably wide during the last decade. India has never defeated Australia in the World Cup after 1978. It will be good if India can manage to draw the game.

India and Australia met only once in 2001, in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup. India expectedly lost to Australia 2-3.

On March 15, 1975 at Kuala Lumpur, India created hockey history by defeating archrival Pakistan 2-1 and winning the World Cup. This keenly contested final was the only World Cup final contested between India and Pakistan. Will this venue once again prove lucky for India when the world’s top 16 nations assemble for the 2002 World Cup?

India is going to Kuala Lumpur with the hopes of repeating that magical moment of 1975. It may be too much to expect a repeat from this Indian team. But no less than a place in the semi-finals would satisfy the Indian hockey lovers. It is the high time to do justice to their potential, as well as take advantage of a relatively favourable draw in the World Cup.