The ACL 2016 QF line up is interesting: two each from China, Korea and UAE, one each from Uzbekistan and Qatar. Surprisingly, no Japanese, Iranian and Aussie clubs could reach QF. Two from UAE also beats me.
It is easy to criticize Mohun Bagan for their loss against Tampines, but remember they lost by a 116th. minute goal. No excuse about the team we fielded, we fielded the best available team except ofcourse Debjit should have played instead of Arnab. Now if Mohun Bagan won.......then 1. they would have to play their home tie resulting in a big hole in their pocket. 2. they would have been forced to spend much more than they planned to ensure availability of the core team by luring them away from ISL. When the Federation itself is so casual about the NT....then how can a Club give that much of importance to the AFC tournaments & that too by making a big hole to their pocket ?
When Dempo & EB entered SF..then there was no ISL & players had to be contracted for the whole season & also YBK was avilable to EB......not the case now. Presently YBK is being made ready for the U-17 WC & the authorities are replacing whatever they can from turf (more than once) to seating etc.etc. How much time it would take to finish all the planned work is not known even to the sports minister & his team.
Under the present circumstances it is just that Mohun Bagan lost against Tampines which solved many problems to the officials who can now concentrate on building a so-so team comprising of mostly juniors for the CFL & a decent team for the I-League onwards.
Further I want to add.....Mohun Bagan tried their best on that day & our best was not good enough. We played 30 matches from 9th.Jan to 24th.May & travelled to China, Hongkong, Myanmar, Maldives & all over India in those 137 days....so there is bound to be some days when the team would fail to leave up to the expectations. No issue here. What we remember is that the team gave it's BEST always & a few times we failed but they have done very very well this season...& to us they gifted a "Season to Remember". Well done Boys....we are proud of You. Well done Sanjoy Sen & his team......we are grateful to You.
Having no Aussie club in the ACL Quarterfinals is nowhere near surprising. Only 3 times, since 2007 when they started to compete in the ACL, had an Aussie club in the QF.
Having no Japanese club is not really surprising either. Not only in early editions, Japan has frequently failed to produce a quarterfinalist like in 2010, 2012, 2014, and now 2016. Nothing's new.
The real surprise here is, no Saudi clubs. Since 2004 edition where QF first took place, Saudi has always produced at least a club in QF with the only exception, 2008. And interestingly 2008 is also the only year that had no Korean club in QF.
You might want to check a summary of the ACL history.
guys...no Saudi and Iranian clubs is a big surprise to me..
even 2016 AFC cup is great and QF scattered around 8 countries... AFC done good by splitting clubs into zones.. all nations will have chance to reach QF or SF in AFC or else we would have seen multiple clubs from few countries in QF and SF..
Comments
No excuse about the team we fielded, we fielded the best available team except ofcourse Debjit should have played instead of Arnab.
Now if Mohun Bagan won.......then
1. they would have to play their home tie resulting in a big hole in their pocket.
2. they would have been forced to spend much more than they planned to ensure availability of the core team by luring them away from ISL.
When the Federation itself is so casual about the NT....then how can a Club give that much of importance to the AFC tournaments & that too by making a big hole to their pocket ?
When Dempo & EB entered SF..then there was no ISL & players had to be contracted for the whole season & also YBK was avilable to EB......not the case now. Presently YBK is being made ready for the U-17 WC & the authorities are replacing whatever they can from turf (more than once) to seating etc.etc. How much time it would take to finish all the planned work is not known even to the sports minister & his team.
Under the present circumstances it is just that Mohun Bagan lost against Tampines which solved many problems to the officials who can now concentrate on building a so-so team comprising of mostly juniors for the CFL & a decent team for the I-League onwards.
We played 30 matches from 9th.Jan to 24th.May & travelled to China, Hongkong, Myanmar, Maldives & all over India in those 137 days....so there is bound to be some days when the team would fail to leave up to the expectations. No issue here.
What we remember is that the team gave it's BEST always & a few times we failed but they have done very very well this season...& to us they gifted a "Season to Remember".
Well done Boys....we are proud of You.
Well done Sanjoy Sen & his team......we are grateful to You.
guys...no Saudi and Iranian clubs is a big surprise to me..
even 2016 AFC cup is great and QF scattered around 8 countries... AFC done good by splitting clubs into zones.. all nations will have chance to reach QF or SF in AFC or else we would have seen multiple clubs from few countries in QF and SF..
Hope BFC will not draw against Johor Darul Ta'zim