 |
| Indian team fail to deliver against Guam and suffer second consecutive defeat in 2018 FIFA World Cup Qualification campaign, Picture Courtesy: www.the-aiff.com |
Round 2, Group D
Guam Football Association Stadium
16.06.2015
Guam 2-1 India
Guam: Brandon Marquee(38th Minute), Travis Nicklaw(60th Minute)
India: Sunil Chhetri(90th)
Team India were handed yet another defeat in their World Cup Qualification campaign for 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia and this time by a nation who have a population of just around 1.6 Lakhs - Guam. A nation of such small population but not lacking heart to achieve something incredible - two wins out of two games, who could have even imagined, defeating Turkmenistan 1-0 in the first game followed by a 2-1 scalp over an Indian Team which boasts of so many new faces.
India never really threatened the Guam team as most of the efforts were wasteful long rangers. For Guam the goals came from Brandon Marquee(38th Minute) and Travis Nicklaw(60th Minute). Sunil Chhetri scored his 50th goal for Team India and thus became the first Indian to achieve that feat. Sunil thus have scored in both the matches for India in their qualification campaign and perhaps the only positive aspect of the team.
National Team Head Coach Stephen Constantine was quick to point out that it was the US based players which made all the difference,"We are disappointed. Today the difference was very much visible between a group of Players who have the best football education and the rest. 75 percent of the Players who represented Guam have been born and brought up in the US and that made a huge difference. We lacked football intelligence in key moments of the game and that cost us."
Team India's second successive defeat would hurt most of the fans especially this one, because Team India were expected to come out with all three points, which they failed quite miserably. One might point out the poor build up and preparation for the World Cup Qualifiers as the All India Football Federation(AIFF) could not manage any friendlies for the team which is full of new faces handpicked by Stephen Constantine. Going into such a tournament under-prepared not only has harmed the Blue Tiger's campaign towards the dream of playing FIFA World Cup Finals but also has cost India quite a good number of points to go up the FIFA Ranking ladder.
While Guam's victory over India was an upset, Turkmenistan scripted their own story as they managed to hold Iran - the highest ranked Asian Team, to a 1-1 draw at home, an achievement in itself. Thus Team India are rock bottom of the Russia 2018 World Cup Qualification Group D, failing to register a single point after two matches.
With around a month and half left till India plays its next match (against Iran, 8th September 2015) in the World Cup Qualification campaign, the time must be utilized properly by Stephen Constantine to make the team a better outfit as a team and possibly AIFF could give the new coach some friendlies in order to get things on track.
INDIA: Subrata Paul; Rino Anto, Dhanachandra Singh, Arnab Mondal, Lalchhuanmawia; Jackichand Singh (Jeje Lalpekhlua -- -- 65th), Eugenson Lyngdoh (Cavin Lobo – 46th), Sehnaj Singh (Dhanapal Ganesh – 46th), CK Vineeth, Robin Singh, Sunil Chhetri (Captain).
0 comments:
Post a Comment