Nah, it won't be that bad. 6-1 type scores are possible. They will let us score a goal in the end, and go easy on us after scoring 4 or 5 by half time.
Igor Stimac is from Croatia, so maybe they will show pity to him too.
More possibly, India will tell them that this is a good chance for them to experiment with their B-side and youngsters, and for us to claim that we played well in a 1-3 type loss...
So the thinking is to give them play against a high-quality team to see how long you can defend and get a taste of higher quality skills. Then, a week later you play Qatar and it may seem easier?
prasen9 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 24, 2019 4:14 pm
So the thinking is to give them play against a high-quality team to see how long you can defend and get a taste of higher quality skills. Then, a week later you play Qatar and it may seem easier?
That is not a bad rationale, if there is indeed a rationale at all...
I have no doubt that Stimac has planned this. Even if it is not for the Qatar match, it is perhaps to let the boys see how good the Croatians are. That gives the players a yardstick. On the one hand, they will see that they are much better but on the other they may also see that they are not Gods. Not a bad idea.
India versus Bangladesh in the World Cup qualifier match this evening in Kolkata. At the mecca of Indian football, Salt Lake Stadium (Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan). Hard to believe that India has not played in Kolkata for about 8 years now. Tickets are selling well, it seems.
Big blow for our defense when Sandesh Jhingan tore his ACL in a friendly match with NortheEast United last week. He will miss some 6 months. Anas has come out of retirement and has been with the team for a while. I don't think he played in Doha against Qatar in that big draw, and I don't know in what form he is, but we may need him. Prannoy Haldar and Rowlin Borges are out for the midfield too, but that may be okay, as we have some good young midfielders (Udanta, Anirudh, Sahal, Karuniyan, Chhangte, etc). Experience is more crucial at the back end. At least Chhetri is back for this game (he missed the Qatar match).
I read that the match is nearly a sellout already! Whoa. That means some 75K+ could be at the game (the VYBK capacity is much less than the 120K+ that it once was, after the re-arranging for the FIFA17 final). When was the last time the national team played in front of that kind of a crowd?? Thank you, Kolkata. Hope we get a win. Bangladesh is never a pushover, despite their 187th ranking.
It was a pathetic performance. India was lucky to get a point. The team has regressed since Constantine left. Jhingan was clearly missed in the defence. Wonder why Holycharan Nazary was not selected.
89th minute goal from Adil Khan gave us a draw at least. But this hurts. Badly. We needed every point against Bangladesh and Afghanistan. If we play like this, no chance.
India sea to be going back to dark ages when Bikash Panji and Krishanu Dey were supposed to be India's best footballers. So much for ISL raising Indian football standards. Now there is talk of Mohun Bagan and East Bengal joining the ISL but neither of them could win the Calcutta League this time. No player from these clubs in the Indian team either.
I don't think it is so bad, Rajit. After all, the goal-less draw against Qatar in the last match was one of our best games in recent memory - though we got lucky too. But we haven't had a good win under Stimac just yet (but have had 2 or 3 bad losses). Stimac seems to experiment too much with the player line-up and give too many people chances. I'm not convinced that our best line-up is playing in any match. We have also been badly missing Jeje in the lineup. Injured, I believe.
rajitghosh wrote: ↑Tue Oct 15, 2019 4:05 pm
Wonder why Holycharan Nazary was not selected.
Especially given his name, he should be an automatic. He has charan that is holy and keeps an eye, nazar, on the goings on in the field. A man with a golden foot and a superb view of the football field should be an automatic I say. So, I am in full agreement with Ghosh-babu. What do the others think?
