wow..qualifiers spread over one year... this is good for us... we need to improve and shouldn't lose at home against the teams likes Guam & Turkmenistan...
few teams are really good at home... we need to have one or two home grounds at max.. so that we can be strong enough in home leg... to take advantage, in summer we need to play in Delhi and in other seasons we need to choose either Chennai or Hyderabad.
Before the start of the qualifiers in march 2017 we have three FIFA friendly matches window in sept, oct and nov. So we can play at least 4-6 friendlies if AIFF plan properly. But with all continues ISL shows during this period we have to wait and see whether we play a single friendly before the qualifiers start. Hoping ISL will be scheduled by keeping a gap for FIFA windows.
we need to play against the teams which already qualified for Asian cup... Its not tough to get teams like Thailand and Syria.. may be we need to try to get Iraq and UAE.. it's not impossible either..
@Nagendra For Asian cup qualifiers i dont see the necessity in playing friendly against qualified teams like thailand and syria. We should play with teams like philipines vietnam, lebanon kyrgistan kind of team which are playing with us in the qualifier.
Truth to be told, it will be a momentous task for India to qualify for Asia cup. There a quite a few teams which are historically better than India. Better than India: Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, North Korea, Oman, Palestine, and Philippines
Teams on par with India: Lebanon, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Singapore, Turkmenistan, Malaysia, Tajikistan and Yemen.
Even the rest teams (Including Guam, Bangaladesh, Cambodia, etc. ) can also be a surprise during India's away game.
So India at max can be 2nd best team in a Group. For that, they need to be improve the performance by many fold. Especially in defense. And looking at the transition we are in, it will be a very big task. Expect Sunil's performance to go down in coming years. Jeje, Gurpreet, Jhingan, Arnab, Lyngdoh and Pranoy only seems to be core national team players. Lot of others needs to step up now. Even Constantine needs to develop a strong bench in case few core players get injured.
The Philippines recently I would say are on par with India, if India can get their best squad of course. Dooley has done a great job with the Filipinos though.
any away friendly is good.. but with tight calendar it is not possible to arrange away friendlies...
and if we are planning to play at home with the teams which are third round... we may loose home advantage if same team placed in our group in third round qualifiers.. what I mean is they will be adjusted to our conditions... it is risky to invite team likes Philippines,vietnam, lebanon & Kyrgyzstan
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few teams are really good at home... we need to have one or two home grounds at max.. so that we can be strong enough in home leg... to take advantage, in summer we need to play in Delhi and in other seasons we need to choose either Chennai or Hyderabad.
He scored 23 goals in 33 matches that he played in last 6 months. (14 I-league matches, 9 ACL&AFC cup matches, 5 Fed cup matches and 5 NT matches).
Strike rate: (Chennaiyin FC - 6/11, Mohun Bagan-19/28, National Team-7/12)
He has been absolute beast while playing for Mohun Bagan this season.
sorry I missed Bahrain.... not sure if there is any possibility for kuwait to return...
If we start considering Lebanon ...... then we need to worry about teams like Palestine, Kyrgyzstan, Hong Kong, Turkmenistan, Philippines....
however we cannot avoid all good teams... we have enough chances to qualify for Asian cup.. unless until if we are in group of death...
We need to feel happy for getting a chance even after finishing last in our group
not with the teams which are in third round...
we need to play against the teams which already qualified for Asian cup... Its not tough to get teams like Thailand and Syria.. may be we need to try to get Iraq and UAE.. it's not impossible either..
Better than India:
Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, North Korea, Oman, Palestine, and Philippines
Teams on par with India:
Lebanon, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Singapore, Turkmenistan, Malaysia, Tajikistan and Yemen.
Even the rest teams (Including Guam, Bangaladesh, Cambodia, etc. ) can also be a surprise during India's away game.
So India at max can be 2nd best team in a Group. For that, they need to be improve the performance by many fold. Especially in defense. And looking at the transition we are in, it will be a very big task. Expect Sunil's performance to go down in coming years. Jeje, Gurpreet, Jhingan, Arnab, Lyngdoh and Pranoy only seems to be core national team players. Lot of others needs to step up now. Even Constantine needs to develop a strong bench in case few core players get injured.
any away friendly is good.. but with tight calendar it is not possible to arrange away friendlies...
and if we are planning to play at home with the teams which are third round... we may loose home advantage if same team placed in our group in third round qualifiers.. what I mean is they will be adjusted to our conditions... it is risky to invite team likes Philippines,vietnam, lebanon & Kyrgyzstan