Guwahati, Kochi or Chennai can be a good venue. my choice-guwahati. avoid Nepal as I do not have much confidence in defeating them at Kathmandu in away game.
Why are we discussing Friendlies in July? First task should be to pass this First Round in March.
Cause we can assume that we can get out of the first-round easily... if we can't then the problem is a lot more than the coach and players.
I am also taking into consideration that Stephen is returning to a completely different India than which he left in 2005. None of the players from 2005 will even be considered for the India squad other than Sunil Chhetri. He will be the head coach of both the senior team and the U23 team and I have no idea how he will select his squads for both teams, especially with I-League around the corner.
Selection for the senior and youth team will most likely be based heavily on what the AIFF say and other cronies of the federation with Stephen only selecting his starting XI based on what he sees in training. Perhaps it will be different for the June qualifiers because he will hopefully have seen the I-League by then. However, it will still probably be based on influence and other factors.
Having friendlies will allow Stephen to think and relax more about his squad. It will allow him to test some things out, try some new formations, see who should really be promoted from the U23 squad and who should be canned from the senior team.
Just giving him qualifiers and competitive matches will leave no room for experimentation at all. We would just be putting him into the fire straight away. And the friendlies don't need to be against big teams, they can be against bloody Bangladesh or Singapore... as long as Stephen has the time to really work with his team that is all that matters.
If Bengaluru FC make the AFC Champions League group stage, only their 3rd match day game would be interrupted by the national team with those matches being 17-18 March.
In the AFC Cup, Bengaluru FC and East Bengal would be interrupted from their 3rd match day with games being the same two days.
They have planned a 1 week camp for U23 =D> the U23 rule is relaxed that week for I-League teams X_X advantage East Bengal / Mohun Bagan ..while disadvantage to Lajong & Dempo
Macau, Mongolia, Bhutan and Brunei are easy opponents-lets hope we get one of them. Pakistan and Nepal will be tough but beatable. We have to consider the fact that we will have to travel also for away game. Travel to Pakistan will be interesting as Indian Government is reluctant lately to go there.
Comments
avoid Nepal as I do not have much confidence in defeating them at Kathmandu in away game.
Why are we discussing Friendlies in July? First task should be to pass this First Round in March.
the U23 rule is relaxed that week for I-League teams X_X
advantage East Bengal / Mohun Bagan ..while disadvantage to Lajong & Dempo