Koreans gave us a lesson in modern hockey

They controlled the pace of the match and made us play to their pace and strength, created space and gaps by pulling our defenders away from primary locations. They also utilised and converted the chances that come their way, especially when playing on the break. They also proved good on counter-attacks — how they are to be played with minimum carrying of ball.

India on the other hand fell to the Korean ploy and have themselves to blame. These were pitfalls as I see it.

FAILURE OF OUR MAIN STRENGTH, MIDFIELD: It crumbled in face of the fast-paced onslaught. The numerous errors in defence, ball-watching, losing possession, errors in clearing the ball and hurried clearances. Cover defence was also found wanting because of lack of communication. Their main players were not marked and given far too much space.

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES AND FUMBLING IN THE CIRCLE: In a one-on-one situation we must at least get the ball between the posts if not score a goal, force a save to try and pick up rebounds. Again, I say, think rebound before the shot when our player is positioning himself for the try — this in my book is critical.

ROTATION OF UNDER-UTILIZED PLAYERS: No matter how fit a player is, the rolling substitution must be utilised to the fullest. For example, when someone is off-colour or missing chances — replace him, give him a pep talk (tactical, psychological and emotional) and send him back.

THE GOALS: In the 28th minute Korea’s ever-reliable Seong Song Tae was on target when he collected a pass from midfielder Kyung-Seok Kim and with his customary panache slammed it past a diving Jude Menezes using what is considered the most difficult of shots to save — the Argentinean reverse hit. Jude, prior to this had made a couple of brilliant saves to keep the Korean’s at bay. After the lemon break, in the 42nd minute, it was Seong who turned provider as he fed the ball to unmarked Woon-Kon Yeo. Finding space in front of him with no threat from the Indian defence he burst into the circle and scored giving little or no chance to our defenders to react.

Let us look at the point’s tally — Korea and Australia with 5 points, India and Poland with four points and Spain and Argentina on two. Where does this leave us now?

At the moment all the teams are in contention and to make it to the semi-finals all the teams must try and garnish maximum points by winning both their remaining fixtures. Every team has two games to go and with the points table so evenly poised, the next stage is really going to be very interesting.

From here, the maximum points that all can derive are Korea 11, Australia 11, India 10, Poland 10, Spain 10 and Argentina 10.

Spain and Argentina have to win both their encounters. Otherwise, they will be out. Whereas the other four teams, Korea, Australia, India and Poland have the liberty to win one and draw one and then take to the calculators. India has unnecessarily put themselves under undue pressure. But forget about the loss and focus on the tasks on hand.