AFC Asian Cup - 2019 UAE

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AFC Asian Cup - 2019 UAE

Post by jaydeep »

India have been drawn into Group A along with hosts United Arab Emirates, Thailand and Bahrain in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup ... India's opening game will be against Thailand on 6th January 2018, then India will face hosts UAE on January 10 ... In their final group match, they will face Bahrain on January 14 ... This is not an easy group for us considering our past results against these teams, though we are the 2nd highest ranked the team in the group.

At the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, United Arab Emirates

Group A
United Arab Emirates (#81), India, (#97), Bahrain (#116) and Thailand (#122)

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Re: AFC Asian Cup - 2019 UAE

Post by jayakris »

Jaydeep had posted this under a wrong thread (of the clubs' Asian Cup thread). I split it and made it a separate thread. India returns to Asian Cup after not making it in for the 2015 edition. We were there for the 2011 edition, where we made it in with a lot of luck and a qualifying tournament in India etc. The qualifying format became much tougher in 2015, and it took a serious upgrade in our quality during the last 2 years for us to make it back in.

The good thing is that we won't be playing unbeatable teams in the pool this time, unlike in 2011 when we got eaten up badly in Australia, having to play them and S. Korea in our pool. This time, we again have the hosts in our pool, but we did somehow manage to be the second highest ranked team in the pool. #81 UAE, #97 India,#116 Bahrain and #122 Thailand are in the pool.

I thought we had to be an Asian top-12 team to get seeded as second in one of the 6 pools but it turned out that we didn't need to. I never really understood the "pots" they use for seeding and draw. I guess the pools are a bit imbalanced in strength, the effect of which will show up only in the knockout stage with 16 teams out of the 24. Hope we will either finish top-2 or do well enough to be among the 4 third place teams who will advance.

I read somewhere that Chhettri was one of the players who were invited to the draw. And guess the team that he pulled out of the bucket? -- India, who else? Haha. According to Chhettri, they had tried a few mock draws for practice there and he never got India from the bucket, but when it was the ctual draw, he did. Actually a pretty decent pool too! Chettri just helps India whichever way he can.
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Re: AFC Asian Cup - 2019 UAE

Post by jayakris »

Constantine said today that we are expecting to play two friendlies in December, tentatively against Saudi Arabia (FIFA 67, ELO 63) and Syria (FIFA 73, ELO 57), two legitimate top-75 teams. Apparently the Saudis are confirmed but Syrians are yet to be.

The rankings of our opponents in the AFC Cup pool as of now: UAE (FIFA 77, ELO 74), Bahrain (FIFA 113, ELO 105) and Thailand (FIFA 122, ELO 112). We are a team that probably shows the biggest disparity in rankings by FIFA and ELO, at 97 and 159 respectively (we moved up 11 spots after the latest 4 matches in ELO). We have not played enough top-100 teams to test our ELO ever since the serious upgrade in quality over the last 2 years. I have no idea where exactly we are in quality though. My guess is that we are in the top-120. Are we better that that? We maybe, but we don't know. So, playing a couple of legitimate top-75 teams would be very good to see where we are, and to get used to what to expect at the AFC Cup.

But we have the Asiad for the u23+three and the SAFF Cup in September.
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Re: AFC Asian Cup - 2019 UAE

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A good combination of youth and experienced players in the Indian team ... Our team is the 2nd youngest team in the Asian Cup with 25 yrs of average age ... These days our defenders are putting a decent show in all matches.

India is in Group A along with Thailand, Bahrain and hosts UAE ... The Indians will start their campaign on January 6, 2019, against Thailand in Abu Dhabi.

India's 23-man final team
Goalkeepers: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Vishal Kaith, Amrinder Singh
Defenders: Pritam Kotal, Sarthak Golui, Sandesh Jhingan, Anas Edathodika, Salam Ranjan Singh, Subhasish Bose, Narayan Das
Midfilders: Udanta Singh, Jackichand Singh, Germanpreet Singh, Pronay Halder, Anirudh Thapa, Vinit Rai, Rowllin Borges, Ashique Kuruniyan, Halicharan Narzary
Forwards: Sumeet Passi, Balwant Singh, Sunil Chhetri, Jeje Lalpekhlua
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Re: AFC Asian Cup - 2019 UAE

Post by jayakris »

I am glad that Chhetri and Jeje are not injury-impaired for now. Everybody seems to be generally in good shape. We are not scoring much, but the defense has been super solid, as we have let in just one goal in the last three matches against #76 China (0-0), #109 Jordan (1-2), and #82 Oman (0-0). All three were away games, and but for a huge goof by Gurpreet on a goalie-goal, we would have tied all three games. That is about as good a stretch of defensive play as we may have ever had in our history. But we will need to score some goals at the real event. Who is going to do that? Let's hope for Chhetri to be in good scoring form at UAE.
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Re: AFC Asian Cup - 2019 UAE

Post by prasen9 »

jaydeep wrote: Sat Dec 29, 2018 2:01 pm Subhasish BoseMidfieldersDas
Impressive lastname. Must be a football family.
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Re: AFC Asian Cup - 2019 UAE

Post by jaydeep »

Thanks for nitpicking ... :p
I have updated.
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Re: AFC Asian Cup - 2019 UAE

Post by prasen9 »

Thank you Jaydeep. As you know, I have immense respect for your knowledge and tenacity and thankful that you post things here with such regularity. I just love nitpicking :p and pulling people's legs :-)
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Re: AFC Asian Cup - 2019 UAE

Post by jaydeep »

prasen9 wrote: Mon Dec 31, 2018 6:48 am Thank you Jaydeep. As you know, I have immense respect for your knowledge and tenacity and thankful that you post things here with such regularity. I just love nitpicking :p and pulling people's legs :-)
Hey, you are always welcome ... :D
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Re: AFC Asian Cup - 2019 UAE

Post by Rajiv »

India 1 nil up in 27th minute of the first half with a beautifully taken spot kick by Sunil Chetteri
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Re: AFC Asian Cup - 2019 UAE

Post by Prashant »

I don't suppose there is any way to watch these live on the web? I can't seem to find a link...
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Re: AFC Asian Cup - 2019 UAE

Post by Rajiv »

Prashant wrote: Sun Jan 06, 2019 2:28 pm I don't suppose there is any way to watch these live on the web? I can't seem to find a link...
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Re: AFC Asian Cup - 2019 UAE

Post by Rajiv »

Thailand a much better attacking side. India seems to have no mid field play maker!, in the first half the stats showed 4 penetrations by India compared to over dozen by the 118 ranked Thais.
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Re: AFC Asian Cup - 2019 UAE

Post by Prashant »

Chetri has restored the lead at 2-1 in the 46th minute...
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Re: AFC Asian Cup - 2019 UAE

Post by Rajiv »

Superb goal by Chetteri to make it 2-1
With that Sunil Chetteri has gone past Messi and is 2nd spot with 67 goals in the list of active international goal scorers
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