Football: Indian National Team news ...

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Re: Football: Indian National Team news ...

Post by jayakris »

The new FIFA rankings came out, and we stay at #105. FIFA has quietly corrected the mistake they made last month when their point total was wrong by 12.75 points, as I had posted on Oct 16th. Otherwise, we would ave been down to #110. All the numbers are correct this month, and we have 319.67 points. As of now, we should move up by about 4 or 5 spots by January (333.12 points). Then the BIG GAME comes up in March - the away game against Kyrgyz Republic. KGZ has come up very nicely to #115 right now. Assuming they stay somewhere around there, we have a chance to go well above 400 points and be ranked somewhere in the 80s in April 2018 if we can pull off a win there - which will be tough of course.

We are #15 in Asia now, but have a chance to move up to top-12 or top-10. For that we need to beat KGZ in our next game on March 27, 2018. The result of that match can place us at around #85 (win) or in the 95-100 range (tie or loss).
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Re: Football: Indian National Team news ...

Post by jayakris »

jayakris wrote: Thu Sep 14, 2017 4:33 pmAnybody knows the exact date when they will seed 12 teams and make the 24-team draw for the Asian Cup (Jan 2019)? The qualifying gets done in March 2018, but I have not found the exact date when they will make draw. The date may be relevant.
2019 AFC Asin Cup wikipedia page now says that the draw will be made on April 28, 2018. So, I assume that they will use the FIFA April rankings. The March 23rd match against the currently #115 Kyrgiz Republic in Bishkek is the next game we will play, and that game is extremely important for us to raise our rankings and get a top-12 seeding at the Asian Cup.

I just ran some numbers in my ranking spreadsheet and found that playing any friendly match before that KGZ match will only drop our ranking (because it will make the point averaging divisor for the latest year to become 9 instead of 8), unless it is a win against a top-125 team. That is not a risk we need to take. We should stay put, prepare well to get to KGZ early, and be ready to win that game. Win it, and we are in the world top-85. It will be unbelievable if that happens. We have a golden chance right now, so we should try our best to make use of it. The upcoming I-League and ISL seasons will help sharpen the players a bit more, and hopefully everybody will stay injury-free till March next year.
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Re: Football: Indian National Team news ...

Post by rajitghosh »

http://www.espn.in/football/india/story ... of-concern

On India's preparation for the Asia Cup.
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Re: Football: Indian National Team news ...

Post by rajitghosh »

http://www.espn.in/football/india/story ... of-concern

On India's preparation for the Asia Cup.
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Re: Football: Indian National Team news ...

Post by jayakris »

rajitghosh wrote: Sun Jan 14, 2018 2:59 am http://www.espn.in/football/india/story ... of-concern On India's preparation for the Asia Cup.
That article is utter BS. It says,
India's FIFA ranking -- the second factor in determining which pot they go into in the draw -- had gone up to a two-decade high of 96 last July, but has slipped since. India is now ranked 105 due to a lack of international matches since the start of the Indian Super League (ISL) in November.
Plain bunkum. Our ranking is where it is because we have played precisely the number of matches we had to play to keep that ranking. AIFF (and whoever is tracking this correctly for Stephen Constantine) have done a terrific job in doing what was needed to get us close to a ranking we need to get to, as as to keep at least a possibility of a seeding at the Asia Cup (which can happen if we beat KGZ away in March). Playing even one extra match unnecessarily, with a win against a minnow or a loss or tie against a good team, could have dropped our ranking.

Asia Cup is an year away. Let the players concentrate on the domestic ISL and I-League seasons that are going on. After the seeding is done for the Asia Cup, we can figure out where to play sometime later in the year.

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Re: Football: Indian National Team news ...

Post by PKBasu »

While I've been in India in the past couple of months (for a week each both months), I was confused about the ISL and I-League going on simultaneously. Doesn't that defeat the purpose somewhat? Shouldn't the best I-League players be picked up to play the ISL? With both occurring simultaneously, won't the quality of the I-League suffer?
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Re: Football: Indian National Team news ...

Post by jayakris »

PKBasu wrote: Tue Jan 30, 2018 5:17 amWhile I've been in India in the past couple of months (for a week each both months), I was confused about the ISL and I-League going on simultaneously. Doesn't that defeat the purpose somewhat? Shouldn't the best I-League players be picked up to play the ISL? With both occurring simultaneously, won't the quality of the I-League suffer?
Well, they have not reached an agreement on the status of the two leagues. Officially they are not first and second divisions or anything at this point, though everybody thinks ISL is of higher quality. Keeping some of the old domestic clubs like the Kolata clubs is really the issue. Teams like Mohun Bagan and Mohammedans do not want to come up with the money needed to join ISL or go up to some of the professional standards required in the ISL, which is the issue. The I-League quality has suffered, but what can we do? But the impression I get is that it is not an out-and-out fight for the time being, and that they are all trying to come up with some formula to encourage the big-money new clubs in ISL, without killing the traditional clubs in the I-League. Maybe something will get worked out in a year or two .
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Re: Football: Indian National Team news ...

Post by prasen9 »

Though I bleed green-maroon, the traditional clubs are useless if they do not want to go the professional route. Let them die. They have done diddly squat for us. At least in Kolkata, if the new professional club does well, they will sell out and have victory parades etc.
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Re: Football: Indian National Team news ...

Post by jayakris »

Good news. We will have our Super Cup that includes teams from both the I-League and the ISL.

ISL, I-League teams to play in AIFF Super Cup

16 teams. The top six from each league plus 4 more who play a qualifying tournament between the leagues will make it into the knockout event. I think this will be FANTASTIC. This is exactly how the Super Bowl started in American football, when two leagues had to be merged, precisely 50 years ago. Then fairly soon the two league merged fully, and became NFL. Let us hope for that to happen.

The "Super Cup" will be played from March 31st, right after our final AFC championship qualifier tie against Kyrgyz Republic on Mar 27th.
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Re: Football: Indian National Team news ...

Post by jayakris »

Meanwhile, India stayed at #102 in the February rankings that came out late last week. We are 14th in Asian rankings. We need to win the away match at KGZ to have a chance to finish in the world top-85 and be one of the 12 seeds at the AFC Championships (Jan 2019). There is a logjam of 4-5 teams who are in the 75 to 85 range; one or two of them need to lose their final qualifying match in late March and we need to win ours. Tall order, but not impossible.
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Re: Football: Indian National Team news ...

Post by jayakris »

Of course, the Kolkata guys will keep crying foul. Their take - Not Super Cup, but ‘Laughing Stock’ Cup: I-League clubs malign AIFF

It looks mostly like just arbitrary complaining, in my opinion.
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Re: Football: Indian National Team news ...

Post by prasen9 »

The Kolkata and Punjab guys are spot on. A knockout tournament is less accurate with respect to determining the best team. A round-robin league is always a better method of finding which is the better team. I do not see anything wrong in what they said. Kudos to them for speaking out.
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Re: Football: Indian National Team news ...

Post by jayakris »

prasen9 wrote: Thu Feb 22, 2018 6:07 pmThe Kolkata and Punjab guys are spot on. A knockout tournament is less accurate with respect to determining the best team. A round-robin league is always a better method of finding which is the better team. I do not see anything wrong in what they said. Kudos to them for speaking out.
Yes, of course, a round robin will be accurate. But even the world cup in football uses a knockout for the final 16 teams. This is a 12 team event, so their argument does not wash, in my opinion. It is a question of time availability. This is after two leagues play a ton of matches in round robin style (and the leagues' own finals etc).

Normally I would give kudos for people speaking out, but I have heard enough whining from Kolkata about anything AIFF does, that I no longer have sympathy for this. Not that I have any huge love for AIFF, either. But they have done a whole heck of a lot in recent years, all said and done.
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Re: Football: Indian National Team news ...

Post by jayakris »

India didn't get the 2019 FIFA u20 world cup. That went to Poland. Apparently we had a strong bid but the hot weather at the time when it is supposed to be played was the main issue.

India moved back into the top-100 in FIFA rankings at #99. Currently we are 13th in Asia. #33 Iran, #37 Australia, #55 Japan, #59 Korea, #65 China, #69 S. Arabia, #72 Uzbekistan, #73 Palestine, #74 Syria, #79 UAE, #83 Iraq, #87 Lebanon are the teams ahead of us.

I still think we can make it into next moth's draw of Asian Cup 2019 as a seed, if we beat #115 Kyrgyz Republic next Tuesday, which will move us up closer to #80!! But that is a tall order, as the game is in KGZ. More importantly, Sunil Chhetri isn't playing (I believe because he has 2 yellow card bookings). That is such a bummer in the biggest match we have played in years. Can Jeje and party pull off a miracle? Doubtful.
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Re: Football: Indian National Team news ...

Post by jayakris »

India lost 1-2 to KGZ yesterday. Jeje scored our one goal to make it a bit closer, but without Chhetri (ou t due to yellow cards, I believe), this was going to be an uphill task at Kyrgiz Rep.

A *huge* chance lost. Now we have to hope that we will be in a good group for the Asian Cup early next year. We can't be a seeded top-12 team, and will have to face two of them in our pool. Tough to make it to the final-16 knockout, which will include the top 2 from 6 groups and the best 4 third place teams. Hopefully we will be a least a good third placer in the pool and advance.

We lost a chance to move up to a top-85 ranking, but that is rather fair, because I don't think we are better than a 100-120 ranked team, and are over-ranked right now.
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