When was the last time we visited Central Asia and defeated their National teams? We lost 0-3 to Tajikistan in 2013 and 1-2 to Turkmenistan in 2015. So this loss is not an aberration. It was a close match and probably better performance then previous two results I mentioned. We are not going to win every match. What we need is more International Friendlies so that SC doesnt need to try new players in proper Qualifiers.
in 2010, we used to call the Central Asian 'stan's (barring Uzbek) and win for fun. Tajiks and the Turkmens were our favourite murgas, and the Kirghiz were not even called. We used to consider Syria as equals.
agree with @Deb_Ban. We defeated Syria in successive Nehru Cup finals in 2007 and 2009. also we defeated Tajiks in 2008 challenge cup final, who themselves had beaten North Korea in semis. No matter whats rankings say, it has been downward spiral post Asian cup 2011. Most importantly do not forget we qualified for upcoming Asian cup only because number of participants increased from 16 to 24.
As someone who regularly follows SE Asian football, i can safely say that each day we are going behind the Asean teams at an alarming rate. These teams are making progress by leaps & bounds with a lot of help from Japan. Thailand is in Pot 4 because they kept playing stronger teams irrespective of result. They can beat any team in Pot 2,3 & 4 and maybe get a draw against some of the Pot 1 teams. I watched the King's Cup final against Slovakia and the team was brilliant despite losing 3-2. We will embarrass ourselves against Thais. But even in 2010 we were fairly competitive against them, & beat Vietnam easily.
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We lost 0-3 to Tajikistan in 2013 and 1-2 to Turkmenistan in 2015. So this loss is not an aberration.
It was a close match and probably better performance then previous two results I mentioned. We are not going to win every match. What we need is more International Friendlies so that SC doesnt need to try new players in proper Qualifiers.
In a decade, the equation has turned upside down.
As far as Vietnam are concerned, here's how they are doing:
http://www.the-afc.com/competitions/afc-u-23-championship/latest/news/we-are-proud-of-what-we-have-achieved-says-vietnam-skipper
Of course, none of them have two top leagues running in parallel, and none have #let'sfootball
We defeated Syria in successive Nehru Cup finals in 2007 and 2009. also we defeated Tajiks in 2008 challenge cup final, who themselves had beaten North Korea in semis.
No matter whats rankings say, it has been downward spiral post Asian cup 2011. Most importantly do not forget we qualified for upcoming Asian cup only because number of participants increased from 16 to 24.
Thailand is in Pot 4 because they kept playing stronger teams irrespective of result. They can beat any team in Pot 2,3 & 4 and maybe get a draw against some of the Pot 1 teams. I watched the King's Cup final against Slovakia and the team was brilliant despite losing 3-2. We will embarrass ourselves against Thais. But even in 2010 we were fairly competitive against them, & beat Vietnam easily.
Their clubs spends much lesser than ISL clubs sign better players and can humiliate all our clubs