Football: Indian National Team news ...

[Omkara]

We drew against Kyrgyzstan and won on a penalty shootout. We thus end as number two in the group. We don't have much of a chance to qualify for the main draw but still a good performance. Here is a link to our Stigmac's post match conference.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CVqf6SVMyq ... =copy_link

So happy to have come second ☺

[jayakris]

Indian mens' team rank moved up 2 spots to 104 (while we were idle) in the latest FIFA rankings released yesterday, Nov 19.

[Rajiv]

https://www.newsclick.in/reality-check- ... an-sojourn

Sorry state of Indian footballers who dream of playing overseas and do not succeed .

[arjun2761]

The quality of our players on offense are horrible. Under the circumstances, it's surprising that we are ranked #104 - our talent level seems a lot worse than that.

[usaindia]

https://indianexpress.com/article/sport ... s-7756859/

[arjun2761]

Curious to see how India does against Belarus. Even though they are ranked 94, chances are we will struggle against them.

[arjun2761]

Our NT lost to Bahrain 1-2. OK performance against a higher ranked team on their home turf. Expecting a loss to Belarus as well but maybe they will surprise us!

[arjun2761]

No surprises as India loses tamely 0-3 to Belarus. The difference in quality between the teams is much more than their ranking difference....

[Omkara]

There is a big gap. Our women's under 18 team lost to Bangladesh. So we aren't that good. It's a process I guess. Every generation will be better than the previous ones. That's the hope.

[rajitghosh]

Football was in coma even before Priya Ranjan took over. Long years of focusing on amateur football and match fixing in the Calcutta football league. For years India refused to play the World Cup qualifiers refusing to accept that World Cup not Olympics was the real thing. After 1964 Indian football was in terminal decline. A few good wins here and there have rise to a lot of hopes but nothing was done at the ground level. A few private academies like TFA tried their best but with no grassroots level focus it was bound to be a disaster.

[Omkara]

Taking PKBs point of view here. I agree, post 1962 we faltered badly in football way before Priya Ranjan Das Munshi made it worse. But I have heard from my uncle's, who followed the game, that it was due to change in turf and style of the game. Like hockey, where we stumbled changing to the astro turf game.

[prasen9]

Change in turf? We still play football on grass pitches, right?

[rajitghosh]

Change in turf happened 3-4 years ago. Indian football collapsed after 1964.

[prasen9]

There is a big gap. Our women's under 18 team lost to Bangladesh. So we aren't that good. It's a process I guess. Every generation will be better than the previous ones. That's the hope.

Perhaps they will. But, we fell behind because other teams developed more and we did not. We need to develop at a faster pace if we have to come up to current standards.

[Omkara]

Change in turf? We still play football on grass pitches, right?

Didn't we play bare foot? Then some rules changed?