Netherlands start firm favourites

Given the home advantage that the Dutch would be obviously enjoying, they would start as odds-on favourites with Germany, Australia and Pakistan not necessarily in that order being the others.

The foursome has so dominated World hockey in the past decade that barring Britain winning the gold at 1988Olympics and Spain picking up the silver eight years later, no other team has been able to break their stranglehold. The expectations are that this elite club of four will continue to rule the roost for a while yet, and, as such, they are likely to make the semi-final line-up.

While the Dutch are bristling with confidence, the Aussies have been preparing quietly as they hope to repeat their 1986 World Cup triumph on that damp and cold October night in Willesden, England. Of course, the team then was the best-ever from Down Under, as mentioned by their National selector Des Piper last night.

The present team is no patch on the squads of the 8217;80s when the hardy men from Down Under swept everything before them. According to indications, the 1998 team has the potential to make it to the top, but then the Aussies these days seem to fumble at the finish line, unable to sustain the early tempo when it matters most.

In contrast, the Germans, still to win the World Cup, have shown far more consistency and are adifficult side to beat in the latter part of the tournament. Under Paul Lissek8217;s training, the team has attained the sort of stability and efficiency that had been lacking in the recent past. But, there are whispers that all is not well with the German outfit which, like India and Pakistan, have been hiding a few injured players, and there being talk about dissension within the ranks.

But then, Lissek, the high priest of hockey, will surely be able to exert control and discipline in the side.

The fourth main challenger, Pakistan, will not find it easy to get past the likes of Poland and Spain. They too have some niggling injury problems, but the best news from their point of view, Shahbaz Ahmed is in peak condition. The wily inside-left indicated that he would like to quit hockey in a blaze of glory and being the main motivating factor, Pakistan8217;s chances hinge much on his performance.

On the next rung of the hockey ladder are teams such as India, England, Korea and Spain, all of whom are capable ofthrowing up surprises and troubling the best on their day. The Indians have problems enough, like injured players, and it could prove to be costly distraction.The point is that the team is basically young and the inexperience could weigh them down.

The Indians will be banking on their deep defence where the goalkeepers, Jagadish Ponnappa and Jude Menezes, relatively newcomers to the big league, will be severely tested. The consolation is that the trio of full-backs, Dilip Tirkey, Anil Aldrin and Lazarus Barla, have been in excellent form.

But the major problem lies up front where the forwards, including the likes of Dhanraj Pillay, have not been performing adequately by way of scoring goals. A half-chance missed could turn the game on its head. The problem of a weak left-wing and penalty corner conversions have been highlighted enough to bear repetition here. Suffice it to say that India need to do a Milton Keynes to break into the top four.

At Milton Keynes, last year, the Indian juniors came up withsome astonishing performances to reach the final before losing to Australia. But Utrecht will be a different ball game.

Even if the Indians could get into the top-six bracket, it should be deemed as mission successful. Anything more is a bonus.