Coming close to BFC match, I expect MB to give play time to likes of azhar/reyner/ bikram/lewis. Which may not be a bad thing but I doubt they can overcome a full strength Abhani
They should have taken this match more seriously-atleast a Draw. In a 4 team group and when you lose the first match, they are already on backfoot as only winner will progress to the next stage. Next matches are on 4th, 18th April, 3rd, 17th, 31st May respectively.
After India-Myanmar international, the schedule for MB is crazy. April 1st in Calcutta against BFC, April 4th AFC Cup against Dhaka in Calcutta, then Derby clash in I think Siliguri on 9th April, then on 12th April in Shillong vs Shillong Lajong, then off to Ludhiana for tie against Minerva on 15th, fly back to Calcutta and play Maziya in Calcutta on 18th April.
They will have to spread the squad wisely otherwise both I-League and AFC Cup are gone. Some players will come from Rangoon after NT commitments and only join the team after 28th March.
For Bengaluru FC, many NT players will come back after 28th March, They get to first play Mohun Bagan on 1st April in Calcutta. Then play Maziya in Male on 4th April. Against Aizawl Fc at Bangalore on 9th April. In shillong on 15th April and then AFC Cup against Dhaka at Bangalore on 18th April.
No club can do justice to both AFC Cup and I-league, as resources are stretched too far. Blame AIFF for goofing up the league in India, and cramming the schedule.
That is true. The best time slot is given to ISL. Now in a crammed schedule, I-league, AFC Cup and National Team commitments have to take place. Remember how they came up with a wonderful logic of Rankings to not play any Friendlies so as to not disturb ISL at all!!! Again they are not declaring the stadiums for Home matches for AFC Third Round because their first priority is ISL scheduling. Even the top European countries and clubs have their season planned wisely - adequate spread between UEFA Champions league commitments, Premier League and Friendlies. For AIFF, it is ISL First.
"Remember how they came up with a wonderful logic of Rankings to not play any Friendlies so as to not disturb ISL at all!!! " Whether we like it or not , that move worked in our favour in terms of rankings and AFC ACQ draw.
1) Not playing any Friendlies for a long period of time will harm the National Team preparation in future run-our Qualification is not yet ensured.
2) Just imagine that we had played a Friendly with say Singapore in that time. Just think, India vs Singapore in Mumbai in November. India 1-0 Singapore. Now I would like to ask members to make points calculations here that how would it have impacted our Rankings? How much fall in Rankings India would have undergone due to that friendly? How would have that impacted the Draw. We are lucky that we got easy Group. It could have been worse - Friendly or not. Luck of the Draw is more important.
3) If ISL was not there, I dont think AIFF would have come up with that logic.
To me the best option for Mohun Bagan is to focus totally on I-League & chose carefully the playing 11 for the AFC match of 4th. April. Pawan Kumar, Sarthak-Sanjay-Bikramjit Jr-Souvik Ghosh, Prabir-Raynier-Bikramjit-Kean Lewis, Azhar-Jeje should start against Abahani with Shilton, Kingshuk-Raju, Sourav Das-Robinson & 2 more from the normal playing 11 in bench. Key players should not be fielded at all as matches against BFC, EB & Lajong are much more important than AFC cup games.
@AKB, I think MB will work towards that, though I think that second string MB will not stand much of a chance in and international match. Having said that, this is probably MB's best bet.
@BrainFallINDIA , not working anymore: slipping down the standing table has started, we slipped down by two places. And more than the ranking points, what we lost during this long spell of no game is lack of international match practice, which will cause us more harm than the good of an artificially buoyed up standing.
What if, on the back of the Puerto Rico match, India would have played a SAF/ SEA nation and earned an win? And encored that performance for a third time?
International football is not static, countries are always evolving, if we are complacent for some spell, we are bound to get a rude awakening. The Cambodia or the Myanmar match can jolly well be that moment.
Comments
04/04/2017 16:00 Maziya S&RC vs Bengaluru FC National Football Stadium, Male
04/04/2017 19:00 Mohun Bagan vs Dhaka Abahani Rabindra Sarobar Stadium, Kolkata
After India-Myanmar international, the schedule for MB is crazy. April 1st in Calcutta against BFC, April 4th AFC Cup against Dhaka in Calcutta, then Derby clash in I think Siliguri on 9th April, then on 12th April in Shillong vs Shillong Lajong, then off to Ludhiana for tie against Minerva on 15th, fly back to Calcutta and play Maziya in Calcutta on 18th April.
They will have to spread the squad wisely otherwise both I-League and AFC Cup are gone. Some players will come from Rangoon after NT commitments and only join the team after 28th March.
For Bengaluru FC, many NT players will come back after 28th March, They get to first play Mohun Bagan on 1st April in Calcutta. Then play Maziya in Male on 4th April. Against Aizawl Fc at Bangalore on 9th April. In shillong on 15th April and then AFC Cup against Dhaka at Bangalore on 18th April.
Even the top European countries and clubs have their season planned wisely - adequate spread between UEFA Champions league commitments, Premier League and Friendlies. For AIFF, it is ISL First.
Whether we like it or not , that move worked in our favour in terms of rankings and AFC ACQ draw.
1) Not playing any Friendlies for a long period of time will harm the National Team preparation in future run-our Qualification is not yet ensured.
2) Just imagine that we had played a Friendly with say Singapore in that time. Just think, India vs Singapore in Mumbai in November. India 1-0 Singapore. Now I would like to ask members to make points calculations here that how would it have impacted our Rankings? How much fall in Rankings India would have undergone due to that friendly? How would have that impacted the Draw. We are lucky that we got easy Group. It could have been worse - Friendly or not. Luck of the Draw is more important.
3) If ISL was not there, I dont think AIFF would have come up with that logic.
What if, on the back of the Puerto Rico match, India would have played a SAF/ SEA nation and earned an win? And encored that performance for a third time?
International football is not static, countries are always evolving, if we are complacent for some spell, we are bound to get a rude awakening. The Cambodia or the Myanmar match can jolly well be that moment.