Indian Junior football

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murlikt
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Re: India youth football

Post by murlikt »

I have to agree with Arun on this, Surkumar is a solid player, runs hard, good fitness and aggressive and experienced. Maybe he can move to side midfield? he likes to attack and wasnt he AIFF player of the year last year?  Rakesh Masih and Robin SIngh are good prospects but they are playing in an academy not a club team yet. At their age they should be playing top level every week including Cardozo. I cant understand why, because you look at players like Bhutia, Chetri, Surkumar, they play at the top level in India every week. Cardozo needs to prove his worth, he is no longer a u-18 player but somehow playing for Tata academy.

Does anyone think there should be a India B side? already in the national squad there are basically 2 teams, but maybe we need to see a bigger pool. I think with Bhutia it is very hard to criticise him, during the Nehru cup he did very well and is still the best striker in India. The loss to Lebanon was a shock and from the reports both Bhutia and Climax hit the post in the first half. I am sure Houghton will prepare the team. Manjit Singh has good quality and the team is still quite young. Some of these younger guys should be really pushing to play overseas. Start with Asian leagues and then move up.
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Re: India youth football

Post by murlikt »

Some more news guys:

Manchester United scouting in full swing in Goa:
http://www.navhindtimes.com/articles.ph ... _ID=102424

Colin Toal and his vision for u-16 team:
http://oheraldo.in/pagedetails.asp?nid=3263&cid=4

First Gujarati to play for Indian national team in any age group, huge achievement:
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news ... am/231668/
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Re: India youth football

Post by nnipp1 »

India won its first match against in Saudi Arabia against Sri Lanka. The scoreline was 6-0 ! We are currently topping the group on goal difference (after only 1 match). I'm hoping we can put down Iraq in our next match on Tuesday.
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Re: India youth football

Post by Atithee »

I don't know if this is old news or its relevance:

India beats Lebanon 3-0
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jayakris
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Re: India youth football

Post by jayakris »

It is not old, and it is of course relevant, Atithee.   nnipp1 and murlikt have been posting news on the 2010 world cup thread along with the discussion of the men's results.  This is the right thread, so I will quote them here -
nnipp1 wrote:India U16 fought back against Iraq U16 in Saudi Arabia. We were aided by an Iraqi red card and were down
2-0 until the 80th minute when we scored 2 goals in 7 minutes to gain the tie. I believe that we need a win against either Iraq or Saudi Arabia to qualify for the Asian Championship. Iraq and Saudi Arabia seem to be of the same strength so I am hoping we can beat Saudi Arabia. One of the spots may come down to goal difference, luckily we beat Sri Lanka by a large margin, we have to score goals against Lebanon U16 and Bhutan U16. One problem I see is that Iraq doesn't play Saudi Arabia until the last match. We have to assume Iraq will beat both Sri Lanka and Bhutan and have 3 wins, 1 draw heading into the last match. Therefore, if Saudi Arabia somehow beats India, they will have the same record as Iraq with no losses and India would need either of the teams to lose in the final match in order to qualify on goal difference. I believe if this scenario played out, the 2 teams would simply goof off (screw us) and settle for the draw as both would qualify under that result.
murlikt wrote: Good news on the India u-16 game Nnip...watch the goals!:
http://forum.kooora.com/f.aspx?t=6567579

(forget the arabic, just click on the 2-2 links) Very nice to see our youth team doing well, the first goal was excellent the second must be lucky but also very good. Iraq's 2 goals came from set peices and that is not a surprise but its great to see a fightback.

It will be tough but India can get thru, Saudi Arabia must be a tough team, Bhutan we will beat, and Lebanon well see their national team. It will take luck but lets see, we are scoring many goals.
nnipp1 wrote:Thanks for the video Murlikt.

India U16 beat Lebanon U16 today 3-0....This group may come down to goal difference and Iraq scored 11 goals against Bhutan today! We haven't played Bhutan yet, so we have some catching up to do in the goals department. Sunday's match against Saudi Arabia is crucial for our qualification. If we lose against Saudi Arabia, we can't control our own destiny. If we get a win, we qualify. At the very least, we need a draw.
Thanks nnipp1 and murli.   Please keep the u16 discussion here!

Jay
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Re: India youth football

Post by murlikt »

Yes excellent result by the boys, and I think we all agree teh thing is to develop these boys with the best facilities, training, exposure to make it to at least a top Asian level. Because we have seen our youth teams do very well in the past, like winning the u-18 Milk Cup against top European sides, but those players have not gone to the level of their potential.

Colin Toal has done a great job, and lets bnot forget they had a very succesful tour to Germany so credit to the AIFF.

Can someone just confirm it for me..does the top 2 teams qualify from each group?? And does this current tournament have a quarter/semi/final, etc?

Saudi Arabia should be a hard team, especially since many of their players have African background so we are playing taller/bigger boys. Still, we have good form.

Keep an eye for our u-19 team leaving for Iran tomorrow...qualification there will be a miracle because we are up against very good teams: Pakistan, Iran, Bahrain, Oman, Lebanon. Pakistan we can beat, Lebanon maybe, but the others are high in Asian level. And at this age, u-19 level is where our boys do not have competitive football, just playing for Tata Academies for example.

It is a good sign that India are playing more with Middle east countries, we are learning about the style and conditions. And also the fact that we have used UAE as a base for our training and matches, good facilities, nearby, and of course many Indian fans there. I think we are getting closer to getting one of our youth players into a top foreign league. The 12 Goans selected for the Man U. Soccer school in the UK, if they are good enough they will be signed. Also the 4 Goans in Portugal, they can become contract players. Not only Goans, but the Mohun Bagan Academy team will tour Brazil soon, this is another chance.

I really think that to say India will make the 2014 world cup is really hard (but motivating) for the players. We are ranked 148, and we do not have a proffessional league yet. We plus the AIFF should aim to qualify for the Asia Cup in 2014.
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Re: India youth football

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Yes, the top 2 teams in each group only qualify for the Asian Championship next year and I believe the top 4 finishers in the Asian Championship qualify for the Fifa U-17 World Cup. Its a shame, because out of 3 very good teams (Iraq, Saudi Arabia and India) one team will not play in the championships next year. Alot of other qualifying groups were much easier and clearly these 3 teams are better than some of the other teams that will qualify from other groups.

I actually think that it will be easier for our U-19 squad to qualify in Iran than our other squad. The way you gauge the strength of other country's U-19 squad is to look at their U-17 squad that tried to qualify for the last U17 Asian Champ. In the last U17, qualifiers Lebanon, Bahrain, Oman and Pakistan did not do very good and didn't qualify. Alot of the players on the U19 squad will be from that previous squad, so I don't think any of those 4 teams will dominate our group and we should definitely beat a majority of them. The other good thing about our U19 group is that we will be playing in Iran and I predict Iran will win against Lebanon, Bahrain,Oman and Pakistan. We don't play Iran until the last match of the group, so all of the teams in the group will have at least 1 loss and hopefully Bahrain and Oman beat on each other. Iran would have already qualified when we face them in the final match. The problem with our U16 group is that we have 3 very good teams and its hard to predict any result between Iraq, Saudi and India but I have full confidence.
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Re: India youth football

Post by nnipp1 »

CONGRATS to the U-16 TEAM!!

We qualified in definitive fashion, beating a tough Saudi Arabia U-16 3-0!!!

What's even more impressive is that we were playing on the road in Saudi Arabia! To further make things difficult for India, we played the entire match without our star striker Manandeep who was ineligible after receiving 2 previous yellow cards.
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Re: India youth football

Post by jaydeep »

Thanks for sharing this great news nnipp1 .. Kudos to our u-16 boys ... :notworthy:

What a win with 3-0 margin ... Boys r showing gradual and definite improvement under Colin Toal and thats really great sign for Indian football future.
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Re: India youth football

Post by indiashining »

This is extremely encouraging for the youth, I only wish our media puts some support for soccer now. Now india will play u17 asia championship in 2008 along with best 12(or 14 ?) teams in Asia. 4 teams from this group will qualify for u17 world cup. I am sure Bob along with Toal has definite plan for improvement hope things will turn soon on our way we will feature in top asian competion regularly. All the best for the boys who scored 3 goals against Saudis. Great achievement.
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Re: India youth football

Post by prasen9 »

This is one of the most heartwarming news.  I hope these boys are provided good support and can transition into the senior teams in due time.  I would qualify this among the good news/achievements of the year.  About the age group tournaments, I have one qualm.  Are all their ages bona fide?  Sometimes, the ages are fibbed a bit --- but such may be the case for the opponents too.  Nevertheless, a good achievement.
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Re: India youth football

Post by murlikt »

Hindustan Zindabaad!

This is a great surprise and a great achievement. Playing away from home against powerhouse Asian sides, and we are ready to qualify...but to beat Saudi Arabia 3-0?! Amazing. I could not believe beating Lebanon, and drawing Iraq shows fighter spirit.
The boys are scoring goals and conceding less which means:

1.)more attacking football
2.)confidence
3.)Solid defense/tactics
4.)Better scouting?

It just shows that if our u-16 players can do it then our seniors can also make the Asia cup. We have the talent.

These boys must also be daring to dream and chase a contract overseas.

Great result for India.

If only the media will follow these boys...always the negatve talk of India not producing decent players from 1 million. We now have decent young players, if the media can support them then football will be the no. 1 sport in India in 10 years
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Re: India youth football

Post by Sathya »

What an amazing performance by our boys ! Thanks Nnipp and Murli for your posts ! Good Karma for you !

Simply Un-believable !!  woohoo

Beating Lebanan & Saudi is great
Beating Lebanan & Saudi away is greater
Beating Lebanan & Saudi with 3-0 is THE GREATEST !

Congratulations to India U-16 Foot Ball team that includes players, coaches, trainer and other support staff !!!! You have done us proud and the most important thing is you have given us hope   :clap: :clap:
Last edited by Sathya on Mon Nov 05, 2007 12:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: India youth football

Post by Bharat Nair »

murlikt wrote:
.............always the negatve talk of India not producing decent players from 1 million.
why blame media alone??  there are many mayo worshippers in this forum itself who does that and more. ( just check out their moronic comments about "legs" of indian footballer's )
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Re: India youth football

Post by jayakris »

Jimmy? .. Jimmy???? .. Welcome back!!! .. We missed you!

Jay
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