The 2008 Men’s Hockey Champions Trophy is the 30th edition of Hockey Champions Trophy for men. It will be held in Rotterdam, Netherlands from June 21 to June 29, 2008.

Participating nations are Australia, Korea, Netherlands, Spain, Germany (defending champions)
and Argentina.

Zee Sports India will be covering this event Live. However, if you want to check it out online, visit WorldHockey.tv and you can get free access to Live matches as well as replays. Here’s the the complete schedule for the tournament: read all »

Argentina are the winners of the Samsung Champions Trophy Women 2008, after defeating Germany 6-2 in the final held in Mönchengladbach, Germany. If you didn’t read that correctly, Argentina defeated Germany 6-2!

While Germany almost took the lead with a goal from Claudia Burkart in just two minutes of the game, Argentina’s Luciana Aymar wasn’t going to let the game slip from their hands. Germany managed a goal from Janine Beerman, but after that it was just dominated by Argentina. Alejandra Gulla, the all time top goal scorer in Champions Trophy hockey, then scored to make it 2-1 making it 17 strikes to her name. Aymar then created the third goal, after which Gulla scored again. 

Burkart did manage another goal after the halftime, but it wasn’t enough cause Alejandra Gulla managed to complete her hat trick and ultimately, Argentina winning the Champions Trophy 2008.

Netherlands however, made it to Bronze Medal (3rd place) defeating China. Australia got the 5th place leaving Japan with the 6th place. Here is a complete scorecard of the event should you want to check out what happened during the rest of the tournament. 

In the end, tt was Argentina’s day, and they will hope that can take the confidence of winning this event into the Beijing Olympic Games. Argentina have sealed their place in the 2009 Samsung Champions Trophy, and will be joined by World Champions Netherlands and host nation Australia. The winning team at the 2008 Olympic Games plus the two highest finishers in Beijing will complete the line-up.

For those who might have missed our post on the Women’s Hockey Champions Trophy, here’s a little update. The matches are nearing the end, which will bring us to the Finals on Tuesday, the 26th of May. 

Currently, the Netherlands, Argentina and Germany having won 2 out of 3 games played, stand high with 6 points each. Australia and China on the other hand sit at the lower end of the table with 4 points each. And lastly, Japan sits at the bottom with 3 points to its name. 

Here’s a semi-detailed score card of what happened these past few days at the Women’s Champions Trophy read all »

Standing at the No. 9 position hammered Malaysia 2-1 in their match Saturday to book a place in the final against Argentina in the 17th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup Tournament at the Azlan Shah Stadium.

The young Indian side, netted their two goals through Shivendra Singh and Sandeep Singh while Malaysia’s consolation goal came from Mohd Amin Rahim. Earning their fourth straight win, India collected twelve points, overtaking Pakistan in second position and qualified for their fourth final since the Cup’s inception in 1983.

On the other hand, Argentina strengthend their position at the top spot after clinching a point from a 2-2 draw with Olympic-bound squad, Canada. The Argentine goals came from Facundo Calliono and Ezequiel Martin Sosa, while the Canadian’s were by Sukwinder Singh and Ravi Kahlon.

5th & 6th Place - Belgium vs. Canada will be aired on 18th May, 2008 at 12.30 PM IST on ESPN India.

3rd & 4th Place - Pakistan vs. New Zealand will be aired on 18th May, 2008 at 3.00 PM IST on ESPN India.

Final Match - Argentina vs. India will be aired on 18th May, 2008 at 8.30 PM IST on ESPN India.

India kept their hopes of reaching the finals of the Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey tournament by beating Pakistan 2-1 Thursday. The win puts them one point behind Pakistan in the round-robin table and means they only have to beat Malaysia in their final fixture on Saturday to secure a place in the final with Argentina.

India with 12 juniors ion the squad, started aggressively and took the lead their first penalty corner in the seventh minute. Pakistan who needed to a draw to book their place in the final, did not play to form in the first half and were unable to score, despite earning four penalty corners. They also had three clear chances to equalize in the last two minutes but goalkeeper Adrian D’souza of India pulled off some stunning saves.

Argentina vs. Canada will be aired on 17th July, 2008 at 1.30 PM IST on Star Sports India.
India vs. Malaysia will be aired on 17th July, 2008 at 3.30 PM IST on Star Sports India.

Malaysia: Needing nothing short of a win in their last round robin match to reach the final, India will leave no stone unturned as they meet hosts Malaysia in the Azlan Shah hockey tournament in Ipoh on Saturday. A victory against Malaysia is essential for India, as that will take them to the title clash against Argentina. But if the match ends in a draw, it will help Pakistan reach the final on the basis of a better goal difference.

India must be brimming with confidence after having defeated three Beijing-bound teams in a row, but they have to focus hard on containing the fast-moving Malaysians if they want to win the crucial game.

“The Malaysians are faster on their feet and quicker in movements. They rely on speed. Our prospects therefore would depend on who would control the tempo of the game,” Indian coach A. K. Bansal said.

Given all the scandals and controversy surrounding the Indian hockey team, one is pretty surprised by this performance. After their first victory against Canada (3-1), they went on to trash Belgium (6-4) and lastly, Pakistan (2-1).

India finally got its act together and came victorious with a 3-1 score against Olympic qualifier Canada at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup 2008 game. The Eight time olympic medallists, who earlier lost 3-4 to New Zealand and 1-5 to Argentina gave a stunning performance to finally win the game against Canada.

Canada had already beaten Belgium in their earlier game and took the lead early on in the match, with Wayne Fernando scoring a penalty corner in the 9th minute. Looking at the first half, it did not look like India was doing any good. Given that the team has suffered a lot these days, as well as top scorer Sandeep Singh benching it out due to an injury on his knee, no one expected much.

Much to the surprise of the Canadians, India came all out in the second half. Diwakar Ram scored at the penalty stroke earned by S.V. Sunil in the 45th minute. Diwakar then converted a penalty corner giving India the lead and finally, Shivendra Singh scored to make the score 3-1 which is where it stayed till the end. 

So is India back? Losing 1-5 to Argentina does put things into perspective, but this win might just give India the morale boost it needs. What do you think?

India failing at to qualify at the hockey event of Beijing Olympics Games 2008 was a shame. The whole corruption of the officials has left a bad taste in our mouths. This will be the first time India is going to miss the Olympic Games. However, all is not lost for Indian Hockey. President KPL Gill has been sacked, and a new interim committee has been setup to get Indian Hockey back to its glory days. 

Given this new momentum, the Indian Hockey team is going to take part in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup with four Olympic qualified teams namely - Canada, Belgium, Pakistan and New Zealand. Besides the Olympic qualified teams, host Malaysia and Argentina are also going to take part in the event. 

From the AFP: Defending champions Australia are not playing, which opens the door for Canada, Belgium, Pakistan and New Zealand, who have all qualified for the Beijing Games in August. 

How India fare will be closely watched with the national team in crisis after a bribery scandal and failure to qualify for the Olympics for the first time in 80 years saw their controversial hockey federation sacked.

Unlike India, a rejuvenated Pakistan are confident they can lift the trophy for the first time since 2003 as they build up for an assault on the Olympic title. ”We should win this tournament. Our players are fit and in top form. We are taking this tournament seriously because it will be part of our preparations for the Olympics in Beijing,” said chief coach Khawaja Zakauddin. (Pakistan has since beat Malaysia 3-2 in the opening game)

The 2008 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup finals will be aired on ESPN India, on 18th May 2008, at 10:30 p.m. (Saturday). The event will however not be Live due to conflict in timings.

The rest of the schedules for Indian Television are as follows: read all »

A relatively new look Indian hockey team will take on Canada on Sunday in the Seventeenth Edition of the Sultan Azlan Shah tournament held in Malaysia. The Indian hockey team are currently last in the Seven nation tournament and will look to get their act together when they take on third place Canada on Sunday. The Indian team had earlier paid for sloppy defending as Argentina scored an emphatic 5-1 win at Ipoh on Friday. India’s only goal was scored by Sandeep Singh in the 25th minute of the first half. Argentina led 2-1 at half-time. India had earlier lost 4-3 against New Zealand in their opening game on Thursday. With nine new players in this squad, the Indian team had just no coordination. The defending was pathetic and Argentina scored most of their goals from the right.

Argentina rode the brilliance of Facundo Callioni, who struck three goals while Pedro Ibarra and Tomas Incento chipped in with a goal each in a horribly one-sided contest.India had experience on the sidelines. Former Olympian and one of the world’s best known defenders Pargat Singh tried his best to pass on his tips, but there were many holes in India’s defence. Pargat is in Malaysia as India’s manager.Chief coach Ajay Bansal was simply clueless as Argentina almost went away with a tennis scoreline-like victory margin. Meanwhile the Canadians will be high on confidence after a 1-0 victory over Belgium.

The match airs live on ESPN on Sunday the 11th at 13.30 IST.

The 2008 Women’s Hockey Champions Trophy is the 16th edition of the Hockey Champions Trophy for women. It will be held from May 17 to May 25th, 2008 in Monchengladback, Germany.

Participating in this event will be countries Australia, Argentina, China, Germany, Japan, and last but not the least, Netherlands. Spain has dropped out of this event, of which place China has taken. Last year’s Winners (5th title) Netherlands are confident of winning this title yet again. However, it was a close match between Argentina and Netherlands, with an end score of just 1-0 so Netherlands better had watch out for the South Americans.

Ten Sports India will be covering the entire event with all the matches, Live on Indian television. Here are the schedules as of now. They are however subject to change depending on other international matches taking priority. All times are in Indian Standard Time (GMT +5:30)
read all »

The race to Beijing continues for various women’s hockey teams, with the final spot up for grabs at the Qualifier in Victoria, Canada. Korea, ranked ninth in the world, are the top-ranked team in the six-nation competition and heavily favoured to make it to the Games. Ireland (ranked 14th in the world), Italy (19), host Canada (23), Malaysia (24) and Uruguay (27) are the other teams in the fray.

For those who follow hockey, the last of the Women’s qualifying tournaments will definitely be a nail biter as Canada, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Malaysia and Uruguay wrestle for the last ticket to Beijing. The tension will be fierce in Victoria B.C as only one of the teams will have a chance to reach the pinnacle of their careers in this once in a lifetime opportunity.

The final will be available on Ten Sports, starting 4:30 a.m. IST on Monday, May 5. There will be a rerun on the same day at 3:30 p.m.