The loss to guam was more than 4 years ago. Since then under Constantine we have improved, solidified our defence, played brilliant counter attacking football, defeated teams like Puerto Rico, thailand, drew against the likes of china, Qatar, Oman, going on an undefeated run of 11 matches, giving close run ins to UAE, Bahrain, Jordan etc. So yes we were improving and fans had every right to expect the NT to demolish Bangladesh, especially since our new brand of playing out from the back had been highlighted so much by Stimac and media. Thats why it hurts even more that we almost lost to Bangladesh!! Whats more saddening is that we deserved to lose that game going by our pathetic display.
Puerto Rico was a setup. But yeah we did play half decent football, but in no way have we improved as much we would have liked to. I mean even historically we have managed these kind of results in the past but the root problems are still the same. Only the next gen can change what's going on.
For 2018 WC and 2019 Asian qualification campaign, India defeated Nepal, Guam, twice Laos, Myanmar, Kyrgyzstan, Macau twice.
Besides Chhetri- Jeje Robin pitched in with scoring.
8 wins there.
For 2022 WC and 2023 Asian campaign, so far we are not looking like a side capable of winning. Besides Chhetri, no other player look like of scoring potential.
Only one win in last 9 international matches under Stimac.
Draw doesnt count - nothing better then sweet old win !!!
I normally give a new coach 10 international games to sort out team combinations, playing style.
Kyrgyzstan, Bangladesh are tough teams?? And can we honestly say that the present team can with china? (Qatar draw was a fluke plus desperate defending). I think our best display was against Thailand in asian cup opener. That was the best we have played in the last 40 years since 1980
Constantine's initial matches involved a loss to Guam, two losses to Turkmenistan, a draw in Nepal, a draw against Myanmar at home, a draw against St Kitts
Teams that we beat like Laos, Mauritius, Guam and a jet lagged Puerto Rico are weaker than this new Bangladesh side which has players implemented from the new U23 team which had a good performance in AFC U23 qualifiers + their coach made them a good compact defensive side.
Sure, we got some great results under Constantine but they all came with time. And it is only just for us to give Igor Stimac the same. The difference could be seen in the 2 Oman home matches itself. Under Constantine, we were pretty much dominated by them but this time we actually had a foothold in the match but let it go due to stamina and fitness issues ( He did make some bad substitutions tho)
And @Chelseafan, if you consider the Qatar match a fluke (which was a qualifier, mind you), I see no reason why the China match (friendly) shouldn't be considered a fluke as we got extremely lucky in that match too due to GSS heroics and bad finishing from the Chinese Players
Stimac was supposed to level up from where Consta left and not start from scratch again! He is a marijuana addict who is being sheltered by Chhetri gang from Four Flags, absolute shit going on in Indian football!
There was a difference in the state of out NT and its confidence level when both Constantine and Stimac took over. When Constantine came in 2015, India was in shambles after the Koeverman's era with our Fifa ranking at its lowest to 173 and we losing most of our games including against Afghanistan. I remember we even lost to Myanmar under him. The team's confidence was shattered, it was an ageing and technically inferior team which knew only to hoof the ball towards the strikers or out of play. In this context Constantine took over and had to start the entire rebuilding process from scratch. He introduced players like jhingan, changte, thapa and nishu kumar etc. So in that rebuilding phase we did lose a few matches against weaker opponents but the crucial thing was, he improved us, gave us a playing philosophy to adhere to and made us one of the best defence in asia. And the China draw was not a fluke because before that we had been on an 11 match undefeated run and even after the china match we played really well against jordan and oman in friendlies and finally there was the asian cup where we shone in the first two matches. China match would have been a fluke had the result come unexpectedly in the midst of poor performance before and after that match. Clearly that was not the case. Now come to Stimac. When he came in, India already had a fairly settled team which was on a high after a decent asian cup outing, there were youngsters like Thapa, narender, changte, farukh chaudhary, poojari etc who already had a taste of nation team, we had a settled defence. Stimac's briefing was to take the team a level higher than its current standard (that is to be more competitive against the top asian sides like iran, saudi, japan etc) and play a more possession based game. Now tell me honestly, with the strong foundation that he already had, has he improved the NT a level higher than in the Constantine era? The same Thailand side we beat 4-1 in january, we struggled to beat them 1-0 in June! Then we lost to Kyrgyzstan, North korea, Onan and now drew with Bangladesh! And however much you may praise Bangladesh but on watching them it felt to me they were sub standard. Its just that India played even worse than them!! Only good thing Stimac did was to call up sahal, brandon, Soosairaj, Reynier and Amarjit into NT set up.And thats the major flaw with Constantine- he ignored players because God knows why. So how will you judge Stimac??
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Teams that we beat like Laos, Mauritius, Guam and a jet lagged Puerto Rico are weaker than this new Bangladesh side which has players implemented from the new U23 team which had a good performance in AFC U23 qualifiers + their coach made them a good compact defensive side.
Sure, we got some great results under Constantine but they all came with time. And it is only just for us to give Igor Stimac the same. The difference could be seen in the 2 Oman home matches itself. Under Constantine, we were pretty much dominated by them but this time we actually had a foothold in the match but let it go due to stamina and fitness issues ( He did make some bad substitutions tho)
And @Chelseafan, if you consider the Qatar match a fluke (which was a qualifier, mind you), I see no reason why the China match (friendly) shouldn't be considered a fluke as we got extremely lucky in that match too due to GSS heroics and bad finishing from the Chinese Players
In this context Constantine took over and had to start the entire rebuilding process from scratch. He introduced players like jhingan, changte, thapa and nishu kumar etc. So in that rebuilding phase we did lose a few matches against weaker opponents but the crucial thing was, he improved us, gave us a playing philosophy to adhere to and made us one of the best defence in asia. And the China draw was not a fluke because before that we had been on an 11 match undefeated run and even after the china match we played really well against jordan and oman in friendlies and finally there was the asian cup where we shone in the first two matches. China match would have been a fluke had the result come unexpectedly in the midst of poor performance before and after that match. Clearly that was not the case.
Now come to Stimac. When he came in, India already had a fairly settled team which was on a high after a decent asian cup outing, there were youngsters like Thapa, narender, changte, farukh chaudhary, poojari etc who already had a taste of nation team, we had a settled defence. Stimac's briefing was to take the team a level higher than its current standard (that is to be more competitive against the top asian sides like iran, saudi, japan etc) and play a more possession based game. Now tell me honestly, with the strong foundation that he already had, has he improved the NT a level higher than in the Constantine era? The same Thailand side we beat 4-1 in january, we struggled to beat them 1-0 in June! Then we lost to Kyrgyzstan, North korea, Onan and now drew with Bangladesh! And however much you may praise Bangladesh but on watching them it felt to me they were sub standard. Its just that India played even worse than them!! Only good thing Stimac did was to call up sahal, brandon, Soosairaj, Reynier and Amarjit into NT set up.And thats the major flaw with Constantine- he ignored players because God knows why.
So how will you judge Stimac??