Indian National Team news ...

[usaindian]

i think we will have them in september

[usaindian]

india moved up 1 spot in world ranking to 132 and in asian zone to21

[usaindian]

Indian National Team: India Thrash Caldas SC 4-1 In Opening Practice Match Of Portugal Tour
http://www.goal.com/en-india/match/4854 ... dia/report

[jaydeep]

In second practice match Indian National team scored convincing win over Portuguese Third Division outfit Monsanto 6-2.

India Hammer Monsanto 6-2 In Second Practice Match Of Portugal Tour

[jaydeep]

In third practice match on Wednesday Indian team defeated Portuguese Second Division team Atletico CP 1-0, goal from Mohammed Rafi.

Early Goal From Mohammed Rafi Gives India Narrow Win Over Atletico CP

But next day Indian national side tested first defeat of Portugal tour in hands of Portuguese Third Division team SU Sintrense 0-1.

India Suffer First Defeat Of Portugal Tour As They Lose Out To SU Sintrense

[usaindian]

india was held to 0-0 casa pia ac in todays friendly match

[usaindian]

India will play reaL Massama SC today

[usaindian]

india won 1-0 against real Massama SC

[prasen9]

Here are some news of international matches. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100813/jsp/sports/story_12806714.jsp I am hoping these matches grants points that count towards rankings(?)

[jayakris]

Yes, they are matches that get FIFA pts as friendlies. If the games come through. Looks like the two Thai games are going to happen, but I will wait for confirmation on the other matches. AIFF has had a habit of talking about friendlies and not coming through.. The THA matches were put on, then it seemed like the Thais didn't want to play (or were to send only a junior team etc) - which were reported to have been just rumors and all, and the matches have stayed in the FIFA calendar for a while. So I assume those two matches are happening. Other matches, I don't know about.

Jay

[S_K_S]

Wonder what the punishment for the North Koreans will be should they lose to us? Back to back Rajnikanth movies for a week?

[PKBasu]

Pretty depressing that our national team is barely competitive with 3rd division sides from Portugal...

[usaindian]

india to play gambia or namibia,turkmenistan twice in september
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/spor ... 331165.cms

[jayakris]

OK, more vague talk about friendlies from AIFF. Why can't they confirm things before telling the scribes all these wild stories. What happened to some middle eastern countries they talked about last week? What about TWO matches against N.Korea early next month?

As of today, the friendlies against #104 Thailand, Sep 4th in Bangkok, and Sep 8th in Delhi, as well as on Sep 14th against #100 N.Korea, and two friendlies againt #133 Turkmenistan (Sep 22nd and 25th) have got into the FIFA calendar. But that may still change. FIFA seems to not wait to confirm from both countries before putting something on the friendlies calendar; but they take them off easily too..

Actually I do not yet believe that #133 TKM would play BOTH friendlies in India, first of all - and if they figure out that without upset wins against THA and N.Korea our ranking would plummet to around #163 behind even Vanuvatu on Sep 15th, they will all think twice. AIFF and Houghton had screwed up so badly by waiting till the last possible weekends to play somebody (we have played just 6 matches in TWO years and none in a year - which is unbelievably PATHETIC just when were inching our way up the rankings)

Mithu Chelu had warned early this year that we were totally screwing up our ranking by not playing the AFC challenge cup with the national team and picking up points. After running my spreadsheets I had agreed and predicted what was to happen to our ranking (which is nothing but BLOODBATH!) if we did nothing till September. And we did precious nothing as we feared.

We are under serious pressure now. Unless we can pick up TWO wins against Thailand, we cannot keep our ranking above 150. I don't think the Sep 14th N.Korea match would make it into the FIFA point total for Sep 15th rank list (they use matches completed till the Thursday before the release date - but sometimes count in a Friday or Saturday match - so even the Sep 11th Thailand friendly in India might not make it in). Most probably our ranking will be 163 as of Sep 15th, or may be 155 if we pull an upset in Bangkok.

What it means is that we have wasted a whole year when our ranking was in the 130s when we could have had a look from some teams in the 100-125 range. Now, with no time left, AIFF and their AGENT dudes seem to be running around like crazy, talking about this team and that team, with hardly any dates to play or any stadium prepared. WHAT IDIOTS! The blame also goes to our lazy coach, Bob Houghton (sure I like him, but still..) ... What were they all doing all this time, and why didn't we at least play the AFC challenge cup in Colombo to pick up some easy points? Houghton seems to lose no time preparing for the Portugal pleasure trip every year. OK, I like the team being together and training somewhere away from India, as they have usually played better after that, but he needs to do more planning to PLAY somebody good also.

If #103 Gambia, and #105 Namibia figures out what will happen to our ranking on Sep 15th, they would all think twice. So hold on with believing the latest loose talk from AIFF. May be those teams wouldn't know. In fact, nobody can figure out any country's upcoming ranking unless they have some detailed spreadsheets with dates and rankings of opponents for 4 years, because of the constantly varying point multipier factors for each match based on 4 years of dates. As far as I know only I may have such a spreadsheet for India, other than FIFA (whom I did get in touch with once to get he spreadsheet going a while back). Perhaps AIFF has one (I doubt it; it requires some patience to keep it up correctly) or they have a way to check it with FIFA.

May be I should keep quiet and hope that Gambia and Namibia would agree to come to India in October without knowing that they will be playing a really low ranked country on the road

Jay

[usaindian]

india won 3-1 against União Desportiva da Serra
http://the-aiff.com/pages/news/index.php?N_Id=1747