All this reality check begs the question, are any serious questions going to be asked to Praful patel and his cronies?...Perhaps only @gaffertape can answer this.....
Or 0-3 is a scoreline we can live with.?...we must remember in the past 1 month we have failed to win 2 SAFF level championships as well (age group but still counts)......
I can only suggest that we need a stronger TD to help design a proper domestic structure and someone with authority who can stand up to IMG....
2ndly like cricket, we should start handing out central contracts to the top 50 u21 players and make sure they play in more competitive leagues (2nd/3rd div in europe/s a america/even japan but regular football)
I don't think anyone here really did not notice that Iran were playing easy... anyone who watches football regularly could see that... it's practically common knowledge by now. That is why I also say we should not let SC off so easily as well yet.
Of course Iran could have played a lot better, but away teams always use a little caution and be pragmatic at times. @gaffertape makes some excellent points about the poor positioning that leads to last ditch tackles coming off. I cannot question the players for effort, but they were often caught out of their position and their opposites for Iran had better movement. Those diving tackles and throwing themselves at the ball looks brave on TV, just like the swan dives Subrata Pal makes, but you have to question why they had to be made in the first place.
You have to clearly question SC for the tactics he uses. Robin Singh trying to put off the throw-taker even in Iran's half when almost all of the Indian players have dropped back in to our half, was ridiculous. That throw was going to be made, and why not put Robin deeper to pick up the second ball instead of him getting personal with the Iran player who was taking the throw?
I would never be proud of any team that loses 3-0 at home, but I cannot blame all of the players, but I will question the tactics, particularly in attack, of which there was none. At no point will any home team go through a game without creating any chances and India created two chances, both from one rare attack. That certainly is nothing to be proud of or extol. If Jeje should have taken his chance, I can counter that Iran players should have taken the other 5-6 presentable chances they missed. That's just supposition and never an excuse for me.
There is a good bunch of players who are on paper at least young, and if they are used properly and we play to our strengths, we can at least try and frustrate bigger opponents. Gurpreet(23), Kotal(22), Jhingan(22), Narayan(21), Halder(22), Borges(23), Ganesh(21), Romeo(23), Sehnaj(22), Jackichand(23) and Brandon(20) are all seemingly at the right age to "build" a team around.
Agree with a lot of points made by AG (The Real One), Rudra and Gaffertape. We all agree that the players gave their best. We all agree that Iran were not at their best, whether they were taking it easy or the conditions betrayed them who can tell. SC's tactics were questionable. But let us give credit where it is due.
What were our expectations before the game? Guam beat us 2-1, Iran beat Guam 6-0 so we did our maths and it was a horror. Iran is the best in Asia and we are one of the worst. A 3-0 in that game would be a respectable score. Remember that Saudis and Japanese have beaten us at home 7-0, and the ground conditions were no better.
For me, the best part is that SC has finally selected a squad that represents the cream. Jeje is still the black sheep we can get rid of but we do not have a steady alternative yet. We all know that Brandon may have an attitude problem and it was not the game where you could introduce Romeo. Robin's role during throw-ins was ridiculous yes. But may be SC gave him the role because he cannot run up and down like Chhetri can so probably used him to play some mind games (I am guessing).
Overall, we did not play timidly against the best Asian side, SC should be given credit for it. Most coaches, with their job in the line of fire would have preferred to park the bus. We saw there was some effort to control the ball, keep the possession and build up moves from the flanks.We were not successful that much due to obvious technical superiority of the opponent. But hell we gave them some hard time. Even during Asia Cup 2011, we didn't see this, every time the ball was with us we had kicked it as far as we could.
The collective technical ability of this team is better than what we have seen in the past decade. There were a lot of individual battles won against the best side in Asia. This should inspire us to do well in the remaining home games. Lots of positives to take home.
Comments
2nd goal- I watch multiple times and ball clearly cross the line ...
If luck was on our side ... We could have lost this match by 1-0 ... Jeje missed 2 easy chances..
I don't care abt what expert says ... But I am proud of my team.
Ps- it was nice to see match with IFN regular @Archak .
Or 0-3 is a scoreline we can live with.?...we must remember in the past 1 month we have failed to win 2 SAFF level championships as well (age group but still counts)......