@DX I hope you saw the match and how china dominated the whole match.. Hitting crossbar 2 times and missing open nets.. We were indeed lucky to drew or scoreline would have been 3-0.
If I were a king. I will do this and that so many ifs and buts. Time passes by but the hypocrisy of ifn doesn't stopped. I watched the match. India doesn't looked good I agree but neither they looked bad also. Drawing an away game in front of a huge opponent crowd against a better opponent is quite commendable. otherwise issues like defensive lapses , non existence of midfield is quite common in Indian football. criticisms will continue but if your national team produced a good result do celebrate that, it doesn't harm you.
What is interesting was that the turnout was significant, especially since India is not a fancied side to play against. The question is, would so many people have turned up if we played at home?
Also, the attack lacks teeth. Jeje, after all cant be called a footballer; u cant have a striker strolling on the park.
@shanks_dehighliving ; With proper advanced planning, two friendlies can always be played. One Home one away, Two Home, - many many countries are doing this. Considering AFC Asia Cup in January, we need as many we can get.
It is not that we were aiming for two friendlies, china said that only this date is possible- we had to cancel the plans for two friendlies and with heavy heart settled for one. Hosting any International Friendly is not an option under Circus Regime-so one away is the maximum we can hope for.
Heights of expectations is that we want to match China chance by chance.
It's not going to happen. Nothing wrong in feeling good about a draw. We have a lot to learn. This is the first real opponent with better quality we meet in over 2 years.
Draw away from home lucky or not we can take it and look to build on.
Great Result, The Best Result in perhaps 15 years for the senior team and almost 80% of the forum is downplaying it. Really Sad.
This is the best away performance from India against an opponent of such pedigree(China) in my opinion. The Guys played with great hunger, desire, and intensity throughout the match. They put their bodies on the line for the team and what impressed me the most was the way players like Gurpreet and Sandesh were pointing out positional errors of Pritam, Subhashish, Narayan etc on the pitch itself, which showed that this match meant a lot to them and they were present to win the match because generally in Friendlies no one is too bothered but Indian players were showing that they were there to play and perform for the team and the country.I loved their attitude.
China, without doubt, was the better team and controlled the match but they didn't dominate us. There is a difference between controlling the match and dominating it. So, They controlled the match(which is expected) but they didn't dominate us because every time we attacked we looked capable of scoring and as far as I can recall, every chance we had, was more than half chance and we had at least 5 such chances. Our Defensive Structure and Midfield structure(Defensively) was very decent throughout the match. The Chinese players hardly created anything from the middle. 95-98% of their attacks were from the wings through crosses(which was a significant win for India).In the past, our teams have been cut open through the middle "like a knife through butter" but in this match, we restricted their attacks from the crosses only. However, our defensive marking with respect to both left-back, and right back need to improve. Sandesh and Gurpreet were exceptional. Subashish, Pritam and Narayan were okayish. Still, they need to work on their defensive positioning. They were found out of position on more than a couple of occasions.
Our Midfield(attack-wise, transferred the ball decently with, one-touch passes half a dozen times, which led to our attacks).It was better than our previous away performances against opponents of China's pedigree and Defensively our midfield was very solid. Pranoy Halder had a brilliant game for India. Thapa needs to be more strong in possession but I feel he can get better with time.
Guys, now coming to the luck part.
Whenever a less fancied team be it any sport gets a favorable result, they have to be lucky.
I have seen many teams performing worse than India and still manage to get a favorable result against teams far superior to China.
Luck is a part of the game, but one thing which isn't being noticed is that in the past, we have hardly managed to get a favorable result against Teams like China despite being lucky. This is a significant change and an amazing achievement in my opinion, that we managed to hold China in China to a goalless draw despite looking capable of scoring against them.
This is the Transition phase of our team, which I am observing. From Whipping boys, now we are moving to the next stage which is that "We are now becoming a team which is difficult to score against."
I know that this is just one game and we have got a long way to go and I also know that Football can be a great leveler and we might lose against someone by a big margin(I hope not but Football is quite unpredictable, even Brazil lost 7-1 to Germany) but at least now I can see that in which direction we are going and in my opinion as of now it is the right way.
China has a far greater Pedigree than India in Football(Their players, Their Manager etc) have a higher profile than Indian Players and Managers.
So, being able to hold China to a goalless draw in China without actually parking the bus is a Great Result for India and huge credit must go The players and the Coach(Becuase I personally didn't imagine such kind of performance and result against China that too in China).
The sooner we look for a able defensive fullback better than pritam and Narayan the better . Could not understand them in the squad 3 years back and cannot believe they are still here.
Defensively poor, positioning exposed most times, don't offer much upfront in terms of putting crosses. Then why have.
Because they are poor they need a wingers to support them to avoid being outplayed and yet 90 percent moves came from the wings.
Comments
Cheerup you miserable sobs. It's a good draw.
Also, the attack lacks teeth. Jeje, after all cant be called a footballer; u cant have a striker strolling on the park.
It's not going to happen. Nothing wrong in feeling good about a draw. We have a lot to learn. This is the first real opponent with better quality we meet in over 2 years.
Draw away from home lucky or not we can take it and look to build on.
Great Result, The Best Result in perhaps 15 years for the senior team and almost 80% of the forum is downplaying it. Really Sad.
This is the best away performance from India against an opponent of such pedigree(China) in my opinion. The Guys played with great hunger, desire, and intensity throughout the match. They put their bodies on the line for the team and what impressed me the most was the way players like Gurpreet and Sandesh were pointing out positional errors of Pritam, Subhashish, Narayan etc on the pitch itself, which showed that this match meant a lot to them and they were present to win the match because generally in Friendlies no one is too bothered but Indian players were showing that they were there to play and perform for the team and the country.I loved their attitude.
China, without doubt, was the better team and controlled the match but they didn't dominate us. There is a difference between controlling the match and dominating it. So, They controlled the match(which is expected) but they didn't dominate us because every time we attacked we looked capable of scoring and as far as I can recall, every chance we had, was more than half chance and we had at least 5 such chances.
Our Defensive Structure and Midfield structure(Defensively) was very decent throughout the match. The Chinese players hardly created anything from the middle. 95-98% of their attacks were from the wings through crosses(which was a significant win for India).In the past, our teams have been cut open through the middle "like a knife through butter" but in this match, we restricted their attacks from the crosses only. However, our defensive marking with respect to both left-back, and right back need to improve. Sandesh and Gurpreet were exceptional. Subashish, Pritam and Narayan were okayish. Still, they need to work on their defensive positioning. They were found out of position on more than a couple of occasions.
Our Midfield(attack-wise, transferred the ball decently with, one-touch passes half a dozen times, which led to our attacks).It was better than our previous away performances against opponents of China's pedigree and Defensively our midfield was very solid. Pranoy Halder had a brilliant game for India. Thapa needs to be more strong in possession but I feel he can get better with time.
Guys, now coming to the luck part.
Whenever a less fancied team be it any sport gets a favorable result, they have to be lucky.
I have seen many teams performing worse than India and still manage to get a favorable result against teams far superior to China.
Luck is a part of the game, but one thing which isn't being noticed is that in the past, we have hardly managed to get a favorable result against Teams like China despite being lucky. This is a significant change and an amazing achievement in my opinion, that we managed to hold China in China to a goalless draw despite looking capable of scoring against them.
This is the Transition phase of our team, which I am observing. From Whipping boys, now we are moving to the next stage which is that "We are now becoming a team which is difficult to score against."
I know that this is just one game and we have got a long way to go and I also know that Football can be a great leveler and we might lose against someone by a big margin(I hope not but Football is quite unpredictable, even Brazil lost 7-1 to Germany) but at least now I can see that in which direction we are going and in my opinion as of now it is the right way.
China has a far greater Pedigree than India in Football(Their players, Their Manager etc) have a higher profile than Indian Players and Managers.
So, being able to hold China to a goalless draw in China without actually parking the bus is a Great Result for India and huge credit must go The players and the Coach(Becuase I personally didn't imagine such kind of performance and result against China that too in China).
We Should Celebrate it rather than Crib about it.
Defensively poor, positioning exposed most times, don't offer much upfront in terms of putting crosses. Then why have.
Because they are poor they need a wingers to support them to avoid being outplayed and yet 90 percent moves came from the wings.
That's a key take away from the match.