Football: Indian National Team news ...

[sameerph]

Yes and this is India's first away win in a friendly after 11 years. I guess will probably help us a bit in rankings too.

[PKBasu]

The first away win in a friendly in 11 years!! Just how awful is that record?? I remember watching India play Singapore in Singapore (in some competition, perhaps an Olympic or Asiad qualifier) and lose 0-1 about 10 years ago. It was dispiriting, but perhaps nothing that should have surprised me.
To beat world #173 Cambodia by a narrow 3-2 margin is a pretty poor result. We are really bad if we struggle to beat even such a lowly-ranked team on their home grounds.

[jaydeep]

India scored a labored 1-0 win against Myanmar at the Thuwanna YTC Stadium in Yangon, courtesy a goal in dying minutes by Sunil Chhetri ... In this match, Myanmar forwards tested Indian defense and our goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh ... They failed to score from created chances and in end, they paid a heavy price as Sunil scored a sole goal in the last minute of the game ... So with that winning start for us in Group A.

At the 2019 AFC Asian Cup - Qualifying, Yangon, Myanmar

Group A
Myanmar l India 0-1 (0-0)
Goal Scored - Sunil Chhetri (IND) 90'

[Omkara]

Our ranking 132 is better than 172 of Myanmar but this was a narrow win. In 2015 my guess is that Myanmar was better ranked than us

[arjun2761]

Our womens national team is pretty inept at the Asian level as well. They lost 0-8 to North Korea in the AFC qualifying tournament.

[jaydeep]

Arjun, North Korean women's national team's FIFA ranking is #10 in current FIFA ranking. So that was a difficult match for us.

[arjun2761]

Yes, understand that it was a matchup of #10 versus #56. However, given how little depth women's soccer has compared to men (much fewer girls play organized soccer and an even smaller fraction play professionally), it should be possible to more effectively compete against higher ranked teams if a development program is put in place. In fact, North Korea is probably an example of that where their presumably state run program is effective to produce a #10 ranked team whereas on the far more competitive mens side they are languishing in the 120s.

[jaydeep]

Agree, moreover North Korean women's team ranking is lower due to the ban on them in recent years, otherwise, their team will be ranked in top-5.

[prajgolf]

The Indian football team achieved its best-ever FIFA ranking in over two decades as it jumped to 101 in the latest list released today. This is the team's best-ever ranking since May 1996 - it was ranked 94 then.

India are now ranked 11th in Asia.

[rajitghosh]

Is this a joke?

[prasen9]

Yes, the ranking scheme is. Here is an article which predicted as much after the wins against Cambodia and Myanmar. FIFA Ranking for India The key seems to be that we are scoring goals even though we are being dominated by the other team. That is a refreshing change.

[rajitghosh]

Next match is against Lebanon. A 5-0 defeat?

[suresh]

Next match is against Lebanon. A 5-0 defeat?

Is Lebanon a footballing super power?

[jayakris]

Yes, the ranking scheme is. Here is an article which predicted as much after the wins against Cambodia and Myanmar. FIFA Ranking for India The key seems to be that we are scoring goals even though we are being dominated by the other team. That is a refreshing change.

Actually I had talked about this first and predicted the ranking moves, back in last September when we beat Puerto Rico (see these posts) -- that if we were smart in scheduling, we had an opening to make a move up the rankings which has been so difficult for the last couple of decades. It was due to some good play (at least in avoiding bad losses since last year) but a lot more of luck and smarts. We have really used the loopholes in the ranking scheme to move ourselves up. To be fair, we were a little bit better than our below 150 ranking showed for the last 15 odd years but never much better than 125 or 130. But we are definitely over-ranked right now, and we have to look at it that way till we start beating some top-100 teams.

[Prashant]

It is still important to play the ranking game, because we will probably now get the opportunity to schedule better teams, and who knows if lightning strikes & we beat or draw them...