Football: Indian National Team news ...

[jayakris]

Here are the highlights of the afghan match (good video too) -

Holy crap, just take a look at everything Ashique Karuniyan did in this match. I think he set up at least 5 or 6 goals perfectly, and we scored on 2 (and then he had a fantastic long strike that missed narrowly too). He is really coming on strong. The instincts on that final goal by Sahal Samad were too good.

[Rajiv]

And what followed after the match was a nasty free for all brawl between both the teams, some thing which we have rarely seen our team indulge in.
Surely there must have been some strong grave provocation on us.

[jayakris]

^^^ Maybe somebody said the name "Nupur Sharma"

[Rajiv]

Still at a complete loss why would the organisers allow the stadium to remain half empty when it can been filled up in blink of a eye.
The only reason which comes to my mind is that 100,000 Flag waving fans, Fanatically chanting India would create the right perfect Nationalistic Pitch & Fervour , and since Nationalist Bragging rights is propagated hard by Modi & Co, which would be difficult for Mamata Didi to digest.

I could be wrong on this but the only plausible reason which comes to my mind as Didi can stoop to any level as far as appeasement is concerned, and there is no valid reason to deny the Indian Fans their rightful place in the stands.

[Rajiv]

The Next match against Hkg is going to be tough , as mentioned earlier , Hkg has few Brazilian imports , Gk,Defender ,Mid Fielder and a forward, and think 2 of them will start against India.

Infact there are at least 2-3 better players , but they are all playing in the Chinese leagues , and the Chinese cubs didn't release them for the tournament.

[jayakris]

Since 1970, in 7 matches against HKG, India has won only one, which is more than embarrassing (and bad by even India standards). 4 losses, 2 draws and 1 win, which itself came 29 years ago in 1993. We had a draw in 2006 and then lost to HKG in 2006 and 2009. It would be nice to get a win against them. (But we had not lost a game against HKG between 1958 and 1970 when we went 6-2-0... Those were the days of the Merdeka Cup where we used to play them often)

But there is good news. It seems India has already qualified for the Asian Cup final round as we will at least be one of the 5 best second place teams in the 6 pools. So our guys can play without pressure and hopefully get a win tonight.

[rajitghosh]

The most famous victory vs Hong Kong came in the 1964 Asia Cup. That year only 4 teams played in the main draw- Israel, India, South Korea and Hong Kong. Hong Kong had finished ahead of South Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia whole the rest qualified since the remaining teams withdrew. In the main round India beat Korea and Hong Kong to win silver. India had beaten Hong Kong 3-1 with Chuni Goswami, Inder Singh and Sukumar Samajpati scoring.

[jayakris]

And we lead 2-0 at the half time. Anwar Ali scored on a corner kick in the second minute for us, and then "who else" scored just before the half-time whistle. Looking good, so far!

[jayakris]

Hong Kong had finished ahead of South Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia whole the rest qualified since the remaining teams withdrew. In the main round India beat Korea and Hong Kong to win silver.

Do we know why they all withdrew? India had topped one of the two pools in qualification anyway though.

[jayakris]

From the Sportstar score updates:

64' Chance! Hong Kong tries to hit a deceptive dink as Matt Orr takes a shit at the edge of the box, but no danger from that whatsoever as India continues to have the lead for now

I mean, these HongKong guys are trying everything now. Even taking a dump at the edge of the box

But that shit didn't work, it seems. Manvir Singh scored in the 85th minute and we lead 3-0 !!!

[arjun2761]

Wow, solid 4-0 win by India! More in line with the FIFA ranking difference where India is 106 while HK is 147. ELO rating wise India is 153 to Hong Kong's 170.

[jayakris]

Yeah the ISL super sub Ishan Panditha who came in for Karuniyan in the last few minutes scored one too. 4-0!!! ... So we make it to the Asian Cup again.

Finally we got some goals in some matches, even if they were against some lower-ranked teams. 8 goals in 3 matches (4 by Chhetri and one each by Samad, Anwar, Manvir and Ishan).

And Chhettri just tied Puskas (Hungary) for the 5th spot in all-time international goals, with 84

[Kumar]

Wow! Did not realize that India has a poor track record qualifying for Asian cup! We have actually qualified 3 times in past 4 attempts compared to just two time in the previous 50 years!

[rajitghosh]

Hong Kong had finished ahead of South Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia whole the rest qualified since the remaining teams withdrew. In the main round India beat Korea and Hong Kong to win silver.

Do we know why they all withdrew? India had topped one of the two pools in qualification anyway though.

Not sure Jay. But here are some articles that throw some light. Seems like Taiwan was eligible but didn't go. Japan withdrew because they felt they didn't have a chance. South Vietnam was offered a place but didn't go. Philippines withdrew as they couldn't field Chinese origin players. Iran and Pakistan withdrew because they didn't want to play India due to political differences.
https://www.insideworldfootball.com/asian-cup-1964/
http://www.rsssf.com/tables/64asch.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_AFC_ ... lification

[suresh]

South Vietnam? I thought unification happened a long time ago.