In all honesty,even though Pakistan and Bangladesh are improving but still if AIFF manages to arrange friendly than the possibility is that the team would be more or less better than Pakistan and Bangladesh.<br><br>So,the situation is:<br>Friendly match=better opposition than Pakistan and Bangladesh(99%)<br>
In all honesty,even though Pakistan and Bangladesh are improving but still if AIFF manages to arrange friendly than the possibility is that the team would be more or less better than Pakistan and Bangladesh.</font><br><br><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">So,the situation is:</font><br><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">Friendly match=better opposition than Pakistan and Bangladesh(99%)</font><br><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">
</font><br><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><br></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">I do not think you understand the real reason for the hate here. This series was to be the real new beginning of Indian football. We had just come out of the worst possible situation, no AFC Challenge Cup qualification after losing to Myanmar and thus no real football till 2015. Since then people have been ridiculing India. Many even saying that we are once again falling so low that even Afghanistan and Pakistan are better then India.</font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">India needs to re-establish themselves and what happens when you need to re-establish yourself? You start from the bottom and that is what Pakistan and Bangladesh is. Start from the very bottom in England against these two, maybe give debuts to the next generation like Fernandes, and re-establish India as at least a power in South Asian football.</font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">We needed this series. Not for ranking but for pride.</font></div>
So glad that this series was cancelled. It was a jo<span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ke to begin with in terms of footballing play that even if it was played in India, the stadiums would at most be at 20% occupancy. Now let's schedule something with Afghanistan or Nepal and maybe a revenge match against Myanmar or Phillipines. Another good opportunity for our players to get good exposure would be an east african trip to play the li</span><span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">kes of </span><span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">kenya, Zimbabwe, etc. I honestly don't thin</span><span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">k playing and beating those teams would have made us proud.</span><span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', tahoma, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span>
I am reasonably satisfied with the outcome as this was never a plan of our calendar.Even, if we would have beaten these teams,would we have recovered our pride?I think the answer would be "NO".<br><br>In order to improve we have to play against better but beatable opponents.We were initially slated to play Vietnam so teams of the caliber of Vietnam,Thailand etc are more of a challenge for us and the players would get confidence.As it was not arranged by AIFF so they can surely find out a country or two to play if they want.<br><br>Regarding giving the chance to youngsters (u-23 and few u-19 guys) i would say i would to make them play in a tournament rather than a one-off friendly because in a tournament there is time to recover and i think SAFF CUP is the ultimate opportunity for these guys to be introduced in the International circuit.<br>
Fock Vietnam, fock Thailand! We are not ready to express ourselves to these clubs. Pride? Please, go check out other forums other than this one and you will see how Indian football is percieved. We are considered weak and vulnerable. We are considered below teams we usually demolish like Pakistan and Afghanistan and we are well and truely in a dark period.<div><br></div><div>The best thing to do in a dark situation is not to play Vietnam and Thailand. Not only do these clubs have commitments of there own but we are not good enough. Thailand surely would beat us, this is the same team that only lost to Australia 1-0. Vietnam are no slouches either. We could not even defeat a younger Singapore side (considered their best) or Myanmar.</div><div><br></div><div>That is why the suggesten is the begin from the bottom. Build back up. Get back to being the top giant of South Asia. This would have been perfect. Brilliant facilities against out biggest rivals. It would have marked the beginning of a new era, a new rise for Indian football. One which could have seen guys like Brandon Fernandes, Lalrindika Ralte, Jeje Lalpekhlua, and George Alwyn intriduce and re-introduce themselves to the international game. To get them ready for 2015.</div><div><br></div><div>Who the hell cares about ranking. We have till 2015 till that is relevent again and you can not use work permits and stuff like that as excuses as there are players from nations around the same ranking as us who are selected abroad. Now it is all about pride and restoring faith in Indian football. Showing the rest we are relevent. This series would have been a start.</div>
<u>Begin from bottom</u> -We are already scheduled to play these sides in SAFF cup so we should look for better opponents in order to be ready for the SAFF Cup as we can potentially arrange friendlies with teams against whom we want to play.Its just a matter 3-4 months before we actually play them.<br><br>Even if we would have played these matches,are we certain that Wim would have played these youngsters?<br><br>SAFF CUP this year can potentially be the platform which India needs.<br>
Comments
</font><br><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><br></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">I do not think you understand the real reason for the hate here. This series was to be the real new beginning of Indian football. We had just come out of the worst possible situation, no AFC Challenge Cup qualification after losing to Myanmar and thus no real football till 2015. Since then people have been ridiculing India. Many even saying that we are once again falling so low that even Afghanistan and Pakistan are better then India.</font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">India needs to re-establish themselves and what happens when you need to re-establish yourself? You start from the bottom and that is what Pakistan and Bangladesh is. Start from the very bottom in England against these two, maybe give debuts to the next generation like Fernandes, and re-establish India as at least a power in South Asian football.</font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2"><br></font></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">We needed this series. Not for ranking but for pride.</font></div>