AFC Challenge Cup

[usaindian]

qualification matches on march 21,23,25 at Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

india won first match 3-0

[SaniaFan]

against?

[jaydeep]

#145 India is in Group B with #147 Chinese Taipei, #154 Turkmenistan and #171 Pakistan

The Indian national team made a perfect start to their AFC Challenge Cup 2012 qualifying campaign as they beat Chinese Taipei 3-0 in a Group B.

Jeje Lalpekhlua gave India the lead in the first half and then late goals in second half from skipper Sunil Chhetri and substitute Jewel Raja completed a good win ... Good to see our strikers r scoring goals.

At AFC Challenge Cup 2012 Qualifier, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

India bt Chinese Taipei 3-0

Goal Scored - Jeje Lalpekhlua (IND) 33', Sunil Chhetri (IND) 75', Jewel Raja (IND) 87'

[usaindian]

india beat pakistan 3-1 with jeje scoring 2 goals
and with this win qualify for 2012 challenge cup

[jaydeep]

Yes, good win by Indian side ... Showed good character after down by a goal in first half ... After Jeje scored equalizer in 67th mins they scored 2 goals in dying minutes to complete another win in Group B.

Terrific start of International career for Jeje, who scored 3 goals in 2 matches while playing for India seniors.

At AFC Challenge Cup 2012 Qualifier, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

Group B
India bt Pakistan 3-1

Goal Scored - Jeje Lalpekhlua (IND) 67' and 90+', Steven Dias (IND) 90' and Arif Mehmood (PAK) 32'

[gautam]

I am not very happy with the performance of the Indian team. We should have thrashed Pakistan by atleast 4 or 5 goals but instead we let them lead by a goal for more than 70 min. India needs to beat such team with ease. We have seen in the past that such low ranked teams always create a lot of problems for India be it Nepal, Bhutan or Maldives. With the kind of quailty we have its time we start beating such teams with ease. Personally i would not have played with Anwar, I would have preferred Raju only. Though i havent seen Raju play but i can easily that he is faster than Anwar. Anwar always tends to make silly mistake.

I hope Bob doesnt recall Surkumar, Pradeep and others who have been dropped for the coming tournaments ahead. But Bob please drop SUSHIL he is useless. Instead Fela would be a better choice.

[arjun2761]

I am not very happy with the performance of the Indian team. We should have thrashed Pakistan by atleast 4 or 5 goals but instead we let them lead by a goal for more than 70 min. India needs to beat such team with ease. We have seen in the past that such low ranked teams always create a lot of problems for India be it Nepal, Bhutan or Maldives. With the kind of quailty we have its time we start beating such teams with ease. Personally i would not have played with Anwar, I would have preferred Raju only. Though i havent seen Raju play but i can easily that he is faster than Anwar. Anwar always tends to make silly mistake.

I hope Bob doesnt recall Surkumar, Pradeep and others who have been dropped for the coming tournaments ahead. But Bob please drop SUSHIL he is useless. Instead Fela would be a better choice.

India is a pretty lowly ranked team itself at 145. In fact, Chinese Taipei whom we beat 3-0 is 147. Pakistan is a little lower at 171. Overall, this seems to be an OK performance by India especially if we can beat the 154 ranked Turkmenistan.

[usaindian]

india tied with turkmenistan 1-1
jeje scored for india taking his tally to 4 goals in 3 games

[jaydeep]

Yes, turned to be terrific tournament for young Jeje Lalpekhlua on his India senior debut ... So with that India finished top of the Group B.

At AFC Challenge Cup 2012 Qualifier, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

Group B
India dw Turkmenistan 1-1

Goal Scored - Jeje Lalpekhlua (IND) 60' and Begli Annageldiyev (TKM) 52' P

[munnabhai]

So this means we qualified for the tournament right?

[jaydeep]

Yes, we and Turkmenistan qualified for AFC Challenge Cup 2012, which will be played in March 2012.

Qualified nations
Palestine – Qualification Group A winners
Philippines – Qualification Group A runners-up
India – Qualification Group B winners
Turkmenistan – Qualification Group B runners-up
Maldives – Qualification Group C winners
Tajikistan – Qualification Group C runners-up

They will join by 2 more teams from Group D, mostly North Korea and Nepal or Sri Lanka.

[munnabhai]

So we are the second ranked team in the cup, and North Korea is the team to beat for us. cool.

How come India doesn't play many games against higher ranked teams? Do we not get invited to play in tougher tournaments?

[amr090]

We are not ranked high enough to get direct entry into the Asian Cup which just concluded. The winner of this tournament will get entry into the Asian Cup.

[munnabhai]

So in international football all there is is qualifiers for the continental cup and continental cup, qualifiers for the asian games and the asian games, qualifiers for the world cup and the world cup. Besides that they don't organize any other tournaments?

If the AIFF wanted to invite some better teams around the rank 80-120, and play them just for the sake of playing, that would help our national team improve. You know how they have all kinds of cups and tri-series in cricket, that kind of tournaments don't exist in football?

[jayakris]

Those are the "friendlies", munnabhai. The federations talk to each other and set them up. We played a whole bunch of them late last year, to preapare for the Asian Cup. Some 8 or 9. I don't think we had ever played that many friendlies in a short 3 month period at any other time in history. We were not playing enough friendlies for many many years (usually 3 or 4 a year), and had not played much at all since the start of 2009, but we then did a whole buch since se last year. Unfortunately, the team was in their worst shape, injury and form-wise, and we looked pretty bad. I hope we would do more friendlies in the future.

Jay